It happened to Jane! What really happened? 1959 in the career of Doris Day began with another box office failure, which for her, apparently, has already become a familiar thing. This time the actress came across a very specific scenario.
One day, Jane Osgood, the owner of a live lobster distribution company, receives a few barrels of lobsters back - because of a delay at stops, the train brought dead lobsters and the customer refused to accept them.
Wanting justice, she sues, although the owner of the railway company, Harry Malone, is confident that he will quickly deal with her. He clearly did not consider what a stubborn woman is capable of and how far she is willing to go. . .
To be honest, the film does not look like a social order for a movie about the victory over bureaucracy, not like a color remake of comedies of the 30s of Frank Capra, like Mr. Smith goes to Washington, only instead of the mumbled James Stewart, we see a stubborn Doris Day.
Actors can't make the movie any more interesting. Doris Day plays quite seriously, despite the ridiculousness of the material. Jack Lemmon in this film I did not like, even more - annoyed almost the whole film, while quite well replaying, in my opinion.
To be honest, I even began to doubt his acting abilities, which I still see as overestimated. About his work with Doris Day Lemmon spoke positively. And, indeed - the actors look great in the duet, but to save the film, alas, unable.
Ernie Kovacs, playing the owner of the railway company, used all sorts of clichés and cliches, for the type of character as a bad uncle with great connections against ordinary people. In general, all the characters of this story are too poster and monotonous - only bad or only good.
Comedies, I think, come in two types – some you can laugh at because they are beautifully made (beautiful acting, humor, etc.). For example, the next film "Doris Day" - "Intimate conversation" (1959).
You laugh at the second kind of comedy when you see how horrible and incorrigible it is. This film can be attributed to this category. The plot is stupid, the play of the actors does not save him, the musical accompaniment stalls, and at the same time, everything looks so wild that it can cause nothing but laughter.
What’s more, you get the feeling that you’re watching a Soviet film about fighting bureaucracy in a primitive and uninteresting way. However, there is nothing to be surprised - the film failed at the box office, that is, I was not alone in understanding its weakness.
In conclusion, I can say this: if there are no admirers of the work of Doris Day and Jack Lemmon (about who Ernie Kovacs is, I am sure many have no idea), then you must have a very serious reason to pay attention to this picture. Thank you very much.
4 out of 10