The Doctor Takes a Wife (1940)

“June” (Loretta Young) is searching for material for her follow-up book to her successful tome extolling the virtues of spinsterhood and illustrating that women don’t need a man in their lives at all! Meantime, university professor “Tim” (Ray Milland) happens to encounter this woman whilst he is trying to make a long distance phone call and next thing he is giving her a lift, ends up with a broken nose and a five dollar bar credit in her living room! Before they know it, her publisher (Reginald Gardiner) arrives whilst “Tim” is only semi clad, hungover and people are soon starting to make outrageous assumptions about their fledgling relationship. What now ensues does rather follow the established pattern as the two vacillate between loathing and intolerance to, well you can guess that bit… Young had good timing and was quite efficient at delivering the odd barbed remark and she does so well here whilst reinforcing the story’s underpinning point about independent women. Milland, doesn’t fare so well here though as his part is boxed in by the slightly screwball nature of the comedy and the predictability of the plot as it races at break-neck speed towards it’s obvious conclusion. Edmund Gwenn pops up now and again as our hapless academic’s father and Gail Patrick manages to keep a straight face as his affianced “Marilyn” and with some of the humour just a little close to the bone than in many similar enterprises, this has a sharpness at times that makes it just about worth a watch.