As usual out of the three films that we watch every weekend, one of them is from the upcoming Marriage and the Movies course so as to be ready when it starts next month. This one once again stars James Stewart, who we’ve seen in a couple of other movies recently, and Ginger Rogers, who is most famous for starring in a series of successful musicals with her frequent dance partner Fred Astaire. Unfortunately there is no dancing to be had in this film except for a comedy sketch. Since I didn’t appreciate the humor here at all and found its entire premise annoying, this makes Vivacious Lady the weakest of the marriage movies so far.
Stewart starts as Peter Morgan, a young botany professor, whose father happens to run the university. While on a trip to Manhattan, he meets and falls in love with Francey, a nightclub singer played by Rogers. They immediately marry but after returning to the university town, they flail around while Peter tries to work up the courage to tell his parents that he’s now married. In the meantime, Francey has to pretend to be a university student and Peter has to rebuff his increasingly suspicious former fiancée while trying find an opportunity to consummate their marriage.
It’s a ridiculous setup anchored on Peter being a spineless tool, Francey being lovingly patient with him despite his failures, his father being stereotypically dense and overbearing, and the entire world contriving to spite them whenever they try to have some time alone to themselves (i.e. have sex). In short, it’s that most annoying of plot devices: an obstacle to protagonists that exists only because they just can’t seem to sit down and communicate properly with everyone else around them. I could perhaps give it a begrudging pass if it was used for some good jokes, but I like almost none of them. Having Francey being embroiled in a catfight with the fiancée is a shock to watch and feels too demeaning to be funny. Similarly having Francey and Peter try to make out in a spot that is already full of college-age couples is a joke that’s been played out too often and was already dumb the first time you saw it.
The only saving grace here that I can see is how Rogers brings an admirable energy to her role. Her screen presence is fantastic and makes us believe how Peter can fall in love at first sight with her character. Unfortunately, as I’ve harped on many times, it isn’t clear to me why she falls in love with Peter especially since the plot calls for him to be more than a bit of a craven loser. This is also why I would never say Stewart isn’t a good actor, he does nothing noteworthy here. I find it especially annoying that Charles Coburn as his father effectively has the same sort of relationship to Stewart’s character as he had as his boss in Made For Each Other.
For all of the previous picks, I might not have liked all of them but it was easy to form a guess as to why the professor chose to include them. Try as I might, I just can’t think of a reason why Vivacious Lady was chosen. It’s just a stinker all around.