No Time for Love (1943)

User Rating:

7.2/10   

Director:

Mitchell Leisen

Writers:

Robert Lees (story) and
Frederic I. Rinaldo (story) ...

Release Date:

10 November 1943 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Romance

Plot:

Upper-class female reporter is (despite herself) attracted to hulking laborer digging a tunnel under the Hudson river.

Plot Keywords:

Tunnel | Sandhog | Tunnel Construction | Beautiful Woman | Photographer

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar.

Cast

Claudette Colbert	...	Katherine Grant
Fred MacMurray	...	Jim Ryan
Ilka Chase	...	Hoppy Grant
Richard Haydn	...	Roger Winant
Paul McGrath	...	Henry Fulton
June Havoc	...	Darlene
Marjorie Gateson	...	Sophie

Runtime:

83 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)

Certification:

Finland:S | USA:Approved

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

One of over 700 Paramount Productions, filmed between 1929 and 1949, which were sold to MCA/Universal in 1958 for television distribution, and have been owned and controlled by Universal ever since.

Quotes:

Darlene: Aw, gee, you're wonderful!
Jim Ryan: Just keep that in mind.

Good

Claudette Colbert is assigned a job to cover the building of an underground tunnel as a photo journalist. She sees Fred MacMurray working there and uses him as a model with the result that he is injured in an accident and brought to the surface to recover. On the way up he is involved in a fight which Colbert captures on camera. This picture makes it to the front page of her newspaper leaving MacMurray suspended. He has no job so Colbert hires him as her assistant. While working for her, he meets Darlene (June Havoc) and they begin to see each other. Colbert is engaged to Henry (Paul McGrath) but Fred and Claudette have fallen for each other. However, her sister, Hoppy (Ilka Chase), ruins things between them and they go their separate ways. We then find out that MacMurray is, in fact, an engineering entrepreneur and has invented a new machine that will help with underground mud slides. A trial for the press is staged - Colbert attends - it goes wrong but Colbert captures on camera that the machine is a success - and arranges it (without MacMurray knowing) so that MacMurray's machine is given a chance. Roger (Richard Hadyn), her piano playing friend, tells MacMurray what Colbert has done and he subsequently gatecrashes her engagement party. Colbert then chooses who she wishes to marry.

The film is a lightweight comedy with funny moments. MacMurray is very direct in his approach and Colbert is very determined. June Havoc is good as the chorus girl who falls in love with MacMurray. There are some unbelievable scenes, eg, Colbert making the underground workers play Musical Chairs - they just would not have done that! Colbert is funny as she delivers the film's final line.