weezeralfalfa Review of Without Reservations

Without Reservations (1946)

Three's company in this 'It happened one day' romp.

[7/10 · 14 September 2018]

One of the several romantic comedies played by John Wayne in the '40s. His lady love is the beautiful and charming Claudette Colbert. In contrast to Wayne, this type of romantic comedy was in line with most of her films. In fact, we can see some basic similarities with her most famous comedy: "It Happened One Night" , with Wayne(as Rusty) taking the place of Clark Gable. The public didn't see this film as being as irresistible as the original. However, it did turn a handsome profit for RKO. Besides the early action taking on or near a train, rather than a bus, this film differs from the original in that the male lead has a buddy(Don Defore as Dink) who tags along for the entire trip. They must have been very good buddies, as Wayne receives all the romantic attention from Claudette(as Kit)........Kit is traveling from NYC to Hollywood to work on the film version of her best selling book "Here is Tomorrow". Cary Grant was supposed to be the lead male, but has just pulled out. For some reason, the producer wants an unknown to take his place. This upsets Kit, but after a chance meeting with a duo of marines(Rusty and Dink),who are traveling to Camp Pendleton, CA., she has the feeling that Rusty might make an ideal replacement for Grant, whatever his acting experience. But there's the problem that Rusty dismisses her book, of which she shows a copy, as so much malarkey. He's a staunch conservative, including matters between the sexes, whereas the book espouses a liberal philosophy, including matters between the sexes. At this time, she doesn't divulge that she is the author, providing the pseudonym Kit. Kit almost loses Rusty and Dink in their train troubles out of Chicago. But, by then, Rusty was hooked on Kit, and took measures to ensure that they stuck together. While walking down a rural road, they meet a gentleman fiddling with his old car. Kit buys it from him, and they're off for CA. At one point, they run low on water for their car out in the dry land of NM. They come upon a Mexican American ranching family, and hope they can help them supply water. The cute marriageable daughter, played by Dona Drake, is an outrageous flirt, ignoring the presence of Kit, coming onto Rusty with song. Jealous Kit tells the father that the 2 men aren't really marines, but stole their uniforms, hoping this news would cause him to throw them out. The father is enraged, picks up his rifle, and threatens the men. The 3 quickly get in their car and speed off. ......I will not reveal the remainder of this film, except to say that Kit and Rusty eventually resume being friends despite stormy weather in between.