Greenes Please don't spend money on this.

Beanbioca As Good As It Gets

Rosie Searle It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Darin One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Spikeopath Andre Morestan is delighted to get called up for jury service, determined to take the job seriously he is very upset when he is merely put on the reserve list. However one of the other jurors falls ill and Andre grasps the opportunity with gusto and honour, the case is a tricky one, a pretty woman named Natalie Roguin is accused of murdering her partner. Andre asks some probing questions and manages to sway the outcome to earn Natalie an acquittal, this in spite of the other jurors not being totally convinced as regards Natalie's reputation. taking things further, Andre gives Natalie a job at his bicycle shop. Andre's son, Pierre is quite taken with Natalie, and this coupled with the nagging doubt over her innocence from other quarters puts a major strain on the Morestan household.This is a remake of the French film Gibouille, it's an interesting piece that never quite gets out of first gear. Rita Hayworth looks lovely and plays off well with Glen Ford's Pierre, whilst Brian Aherne is very entertaining as Andre, but one never gets any sense of feeling with the characters. In a film that purports to be a comedy drama, you find that the picture is caught between both genres, the comedy is sporadically interesting but the drama then comes across as staid. I personally haven't seen the French original but i wouldn't be at all surprised if Gibouille is a bit more daring and close to the knuckle with its execution?. This is a decent picture and one that certainly has a watch-ability factor for cast and outcome of story, it just really should have been so much more one feels. 5.2/10

whpratt1 Greatly enjoyed this film which is full of drama and plenty of laughs along with a great cast of new stars who would become very famous and successful on the Silver Screen in Hollywood for many years. Charles Vidor produced this film and that is living proof this is a great 1940 extra special film. Brian Aheme, (Andre Moestan) is a bicycle shop owner who desperately wants to become a juror in a court case and gets himself deeply involved with the trial of Natalie Roguin played by Rita Hayworth and Andre Moestan feels great compassion for Natalie and manages to sway the jury into setting her free. Andre gives her a job in his bicycle shop and lets her live with his family above the shop. Glenn Ford plays the role as Pierre Moestan, the son of Andre and he falls madly in love with Natalie. Evelyn Keyes, (Francois Morestan) gave a great supporting role as the daughter of Andre Moestan who wants to get married in the worst way and is simply boy crazy about all men and full of the devil. It is great seeing such great super stars so very young and just starting out in their Hollywood careers. Enjoy this film. I must also mention that Evelyn Keys had just given a great performance in "Gone With The Wind", 1939 and played a great role in this film and went on to become a great Pin Up Girl for our Fighting Troops during World War II.

Neil Doyle Interesting that Columbia teamed GLENN FORD and RITA HAYWORTH six years before GILDA made them such a hot romantic combination, in a rather tepid courtroom tale that's an uneven mix of comedy and drama and barely allowed the sparks to fly between Ford and Hayworth.Actually, it's BRIAN AHERNE who gets top billing as the Parisian shop owner who sits in on a murder trial and finds himself falling for "the lady in question". Aherne plays the man as a naively foolish individual who looks forward with childish glee to jury duty--and then manages to convince the others that Rita is not guilty of murder.EVELYN KEYES plays his equally flighty daughter and IRENE RICH is his sensible wife. GLENN FORD is his attractive and reasonably sensible son.It soon becomes apparent that all of the courtroom scenes are going to be played for comedy rather than drama. LLOYD CORRIGAN and GEORGE COULOURIS play opposing lawyers with comic skill and CURT BOIS does an amusing job as a fellow juror who takes an instant dislike to Aherne when he's accidentally splashed with water and then becomes his amusing adversary for the rest of the story.But the spotlight is mainly on BRIAN AHERNE and he easily walks off with the film as the bumbling shop owner who begins to think that perhaps he shouldn't have talked the other jurors into freeing Rita, after she has an affair with his son whom he finds has stolen some money in order to leave with her. Aherne had a flair for comedy that is really given the spotlight here.There's a clever plot twist at the end in which Aherne realizes how wrong he's been about everything.RITA HAYWORTH shows promise in a rather uninteresting role that doesn't allow her to do more than look like a decorative leading lady and GLENN FORD is clearly not yet the movie star he would become. Both have relatively minor roles compared to Aherne.Summing up: Interesting oddity is strange mixture of comedy and drama.

Noirdame79 A charming, cute movie, the first to pair Rita Hayworth and Glenn Ford, directed by Charles Vidor. Brian Aherne is funny and touching as Andre Morestan, the family man who finds himself a jury member on the case of young Natalie Roguin (Hayworth) accused of murdering her lover. After she is acquitted, Andre takes pity on the poor girl and gives her a job in his bicycle shop, as well as providing room and board, but concealing her true identity from his family. His son, Pierre (Ford), however, knows who she is as he stole into the courthouse one day during the trial. His obvious attraction to her is sweetly presented, with his clattering case of butterfingers. Only when he begins to suspect that she is having an affair with his father, does he reveal that he knows her true identity. After the misunderstanding is cleared up, the young duo fall in love, but Andre's opposition, as well as Natalie's fear of her true identity being revealed, puts a strain on the situation. Things change for the worse when the ne'er do well fiancée, Robert (Edward Norris) of Pierre's sister Francoise (Evelyn Keyes, best remembered as Scarlett's whiny sister Suellen in GWTW), makes advances toward Natalie when he discovers the truth. Then Natalie's innocence comes into question in Andre's mind, until he learns that there is new evidence that Natalie indeed acted in self-defense. A happy little ending wraps up about an hour and a half of this interesting little gem. Irene Rich is great as Michele Morestan, wife and mother, who provides warmth and wisdom.The chemistry that Hayworth and Ford would go on to display in four more films is very apparent here; their scenes together are adorable, boil over with chemistry, and it is little wonder that they went on to become one of the great romantic screen couples, as well as stars in their own right. And Aherne regarded this as one of his favorite films - and it's easy to see why!Needs to be on DVD.