The Admiral Was A Lady (1950) - Video On Demand

The Admiral Was A Lady - Movie Review

Wanda Hendrix is a WAVE officer who is endlessly pursued by lascivious men. Ex-airmen Edmond O'Brien, Johnny Sands and Steve Brodie spend most of their time chasing Wanda about, but she manages to keep them at arms' length. You see, she only has eyes for her boyfriend Dick Erdman, who is on the lam from vengeful millionaire Rudy Vallee. But it's O'Brien who ends up with Wanda, after nearly getting pounded into hamburger in the boxing ring as a means of proving his love.

An enjoyable movie set just after World War II about a woman ensign (nicknamed the admiral) who falls in with a gang of lovable losers, four ex-GIs who work diligently from dusk to dawn at finding ways to avoid work. There's a subplot about them trying to get her back together with her long lost fiancee, and an even more bizarre sub-sub plot about a rich millionaire and meddling detectives. The main point of interest is the repartee between the "admiral" and the men.

The Hollywood treatment of the problems of returning servicemen after World War 2 took many forms - sob stories, psychological dramas, films noirs, even musicals - but this film is unusual, perhaps even unique, in giving them an irreverent screwball slant. The script sparkles with wise-cracking dialogue, and the action proceeds headlong in unpredictable directions. It is the sort of movie that the phrase "never a dull moment" was coined for. The two leads did full justice to their parts, but they lacked the star status to impress the critics. If Claudette Colbert and Cary Grant had been cast, or Jean Arthur and Jimmy Stewart, they could have performed no better, but this film would now be assured of its place in the annals of screwball comedy instead of being neglected and almost forgotten.

The Admiral Was A Lady - Cast & Crew

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