The Lady Is Willing (1942)
Directed by Mitchell Leisen

Film Review

Marlene Dietrich's best years in front of the camera were behind her when she agreed to star in this fairly lacklustre comedy directed by Mitchell Leisen, who was also way past his prime. The Lady Is Willing is an odd concoction of farce, screwball comedy and melodrama that tries desperately to make something of its totally implausible (and at times frankly disturbing) storyline.  There are one or two reasonably good laughs along the way, but the comedy is pretty hit-and-miss, and Dietrich clearly looks uncomfortable in a film that almost seems hell-bent on wasting her talents.

The pairing of the über-charismatic German diva (star of such classics as Der Blaue Engel (1930), Shanghai Express (1932) and The Devil Is a Woman (1935)) with the ever-dependable Fred MacMurray (Double Indemnity (1944)) sounds good on paper but the chemistry is conspicuous by its absence and this is just one more reason why the film is doomed to fail (the main reason being a laughably bad script). This comedy misfire might well have been the end of Dietrich's career, but Fate was kind enough to throw her one or two life-lines to keep her flagging film career afloat, notably Billy Wilder's Witness for the Prosecution (1957) and Alfred Hitchcock's Stage Fright (1950).

Film Synopsis

When Broadway star Liza Madden suddenly discovers her maternal instinct one day, she thinks nothing of picking an abandoned toddler off the street and taking him back to her apartment.  Despite the protestations of her business manager, Liza is determined to adopt the child, and immediately calls in Dr. Corey McBain to examine him.  When she learns that she can only keep the child if she is married, Liza makes Dr McBain a strange proposition - if he marries her, she will give him the financial backing he needs to carry out groundbreaking research on rabbits.  All goes well until Dr McBain's first wife turns up...