RKO turned out some interesting films under the Howard Hughes regime; others were more "meh" such as this romantic comedy-drama. It's got the sort of premise of which you say "yeah that could work, in the hands of someone who knows what they're doing": it's a look at the marriage of a couple, a playwright and and a model, from the point of view of people who knew them. Kind of a little like Letter to Three Wives and Forget Paris - actually come to think of it it's a lot like Forget Paris. Only there's no Joseph L Mankiewicz or Bill Crystal here, just a lot of awkwardly staged scenes.
I think everyone was out of their class - stars Victor Mature and Jean Simmons, the support cast, the writer, director Roy Rowland. It's mind numbingly boring.
Mature is professional as he always is but is never convincing as a writer - though I did buy him as a gambler. He has poor chemistry with Simmons, who looks bored. Simmons has a great reputation - people like William Goldman are always going on about her - but she's incredibly ordinary here; she seems like she's about to fall asleep.
There's some astonishingly ordinary support performances from others in the cast - Jane Darwell, the people playing their friends, crusty co workers etc. The plot ambles along with dull incident - they meet, Mature gambles a little, a slutty girl hits on him, he struggles to make it as a playwright, then he makes it super quick. The one interesting bit is when Simmons falls pregnant and has a baby; the doctor makes Mature wait at a nearby bar, then Mature gets a call that the baby has died - this was moving.
Really dumb script full of loose ends. What about their adopted kid? What about the seductive actress? What about their play? What problem do they have? Why are they back together? Are we meant to care? Why was this made?
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