Princess O'Rourke (1943)

Once upon a time, there was a Princess. She was living far away from her homeland, in a place called New York City. She was sad, because she felt like she was in a gilded cage. One day, her Uncle decieded to send her to California to cheer her up. But the Princess hated flying, so she ended up taking five sleeping pills to knock herself out. Unfortunately, these pills worked too well, and when the plane had to return to New York City because of weather issues, no one could rouse her from her slumber. Thankfully, a hansome young pilot took her to his apartment to sleep it off. When she awoke, he was not there, but they managed to meet again and fall in love.

            This was a very cute film. All of the performances are very good, especially Olivia De Haveland. She is aloud to show off some comedic gifts which I did not suspect that she possessed. Nowhere is it as obvious than when she is on the plane: continually taking pills, with a slow effect, but suddenly hitting the mark, and she collapses in one of the most graceful ways possible.

            The music can be a bit overbearing, adding light hearted emphasis to every action that is in the most remote way funny. And don’t get me started on the propaganda. After all, this was made during the war, and it does not let us forget it. There are mentions of the air force, women practice badanging a haplace deHaveland, and there is of course, a speech by the hero saying how glad he is to be an American and looing forward to providing a good answer to “What did you do in the war, daddy?”

            Dispite that, I really liked this movie: I wish that it was more widely know. Modern comedies today could take a page  on its timing, as well as inuendos. For example: “Honey, are you lucky I was raised right!” (it makes more sense in context)