Pluskylang Great Film overall

TeenzTen An action-packed slog

Solidrariol Am I Missing Something?

Ketrivie It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

rhoda-9 If a movie gives you Hedy Lamarr to look at, it seems churlish to complain. But even the presence of one of the most beautiful women who ever lived, plus the adorable June Allyson and the endearing Robert Walker do not begin to compensate for the hideously vulgar and phoney goings-on.This routine princess-falls-in-love-with-ordinary-American comedy is joined with a love story between Walker and Allyson, the woman he really loves without realising it. |Nothing wrong with that, but she is paralysed from the waist down. Why? Because--the doctor gives us his medical opinion--in childhood she was not loved enough!Can you imagine the feelings of parents of crippled children on hearing such a thing? Back in the Forties, most people would have thought such a question absurdly oversensitive, but now it's a matter of common decency. Not only that, there is a long dream sequence in which Allyson imagines herself, in a feathered evening gown, dancing with Walker. Worse yet, at the end she actually begins to walk! and starts dancing with him! In the absence of a FAIRY princess to wave a magic wand, this is repulsively vulgar and cruel.Not only that, but Allyson is portrayed in a manner right out of cheap Victorian sentimentality. She does not sit in an ugly wheelchair but reclines on a couch, rising from it only when Walker, visiting her in the evenings, carries her to the roof for some fresh air. I wonder if any kid in the audience ever piped up, "How does she go to the bathroom?" She has a lovely flat, full of antiques and beautifully kept, which is understandable, as she works at painting dolls, and earns as much as--$3 a day! Poor June! She spends the whole film in cotton pyjamas or a floor-length, high-collared, puffed-sleeve nightie, while Hedy gets to float around in one fabulous evening gown after another.Some more hypocrisy: The princess wants to see some low life, so Walker, very reluctantly and apologetically, takes her to a place where the floor show is a couple in 19th-century costume, singing "Wait Till the Sun Shines, Nellie." Positively decadent! One man punches another, leading to the kind of phoney free-for-all that happens only in the movies. I have always wondered why, if two men start fighting in a saloon, other men should suddenly start fighting each other all over the place, and women should whack them over the head with bottles. Any suggestions?

MartinHafer Robert Walker plays Jimmy, the nice-guy bellboy from the film's title. He works at a hotel and spends most of his free time hanging out with Leslie, a disabled lady who has some weird disease. According to the Doc, she didn't get enough love as a child and as a result she apparently can't walk!! Sounds like she could use a good psychotherapist! Regardless, through the course of the film Leslie's heart is broken as Jimmy begins to spend less and less time with her and more with a beautiful Princess staying at the hotel (Hedy Lamarr). The Princess likes Jimmy and has asked the manager that he be assigned as her personal aid. However, through the course of the film, Jimmy overhears a conversation and thinks the Princess is in love with him! She IS in love with a commoner...but it sure ain't Jimmy! What's to happen with poor Leslie...and poor Jimmy...and the poor Princess...when she gets arrested?!Most of this film is very nice, though occasionally the film drops the ball. First, there's the bizarre illness which can only happen in a Hollywood flick! Second, there's a very long and irrelevant dream sequence which just would have been better left out of the movie. Despite these complaints, the film is generally very nice-- sort of like a modern fairy tale and with some nice performances. Well worth seeing even with its flaws.

moonspinner55 Hedy Lamarr plays a foreign princess who travels with her entourage to New York City in the hopes of meeting up again with a former flame who writes a daily newspaper column (and detests royalty!); while staying in a swank hotel, the princess is befriended by a boyish, charming bellhop who develops a crush on her, despite the fact he's also playing big brother/boyfriend to a bed-ridden girl who lives in his walk-up. Very odd romantic comedy seems to lay the character eccentricities on a bit heavily...but once the mechanisms of the plot take hold, the players seem more at home within this scenario, which is jaunty and friendly more than funny. As the bellboy, Robert Walker doesn't seem to know whether to play his role like a grown-up or a klutzy kid--so he does both; he's very ingratiating with his double-takes and exasperated looks (he gives the hotel receptionist a beaut!), and a lengthy scene early on--with Walker reading a fairy tale out loud to his girl, and indeed the neighborhood--is very tricky yet easily pulled off by the actor. Lamarr is less successful; her royal visitor doesn't require a lot of joy or spontaneity, and she isn't reluctant to show her emotions, but still she's an awfully grim beauty, harboring love's disappointments. June Allyson has the strangest role, that of an invalid girl who can walk but chooses not to (?), but she beams like Judy Garland and her smile is a welcome relief after too much of Lamarr's scowling. There's a nice musical dream sequence that seems a little padded, yet the hotel staff, Agnes Moorehead's Countess, and Walker's cohorts are all a very likable bunch. Not a completely successful fantasy, but a well-produced, well-paced one with lots of happiness to go around. *** from ****

spirit11 WARNING: This review may reveal portions of the film plot.If you are a fan of old films simply for the sake of their age, then this might be a film you would enjoy. Most others would not be impressed with this film.Unfortunately, the storyline is obvious, although I'll admit at the end of the film you aren't sure if the two people in love will figure it out in time. The movie seems to run a bit long as well, dragging out the inevitable ending.If all that sounds like this is a bad film, it isn't. It is a typical love story of the 40s film genre, however there really aren't any "bad guys" in this film, which might account for some of where the film seems to run long. You want to cheer for the hero, but there is no villain for the hero to fight against.All in all, the film is sweet, definitely what would be referred to as a "chick flick." If you catch it, that's fine, but you don't need to worry if you miss it.