Unfinished Business (1941 film)

Last updated
Unfinished Business
Unfinished Business.jpg
Directed by Gregory La Cava
Written by Vicki Baum
Eugene Thackrey
Produced byGregory La Cava
Starring Irene Dunne
Robert Montgomery
Preston Foster
Cinematography Joseph A. Valentine
Edited byRussell Schoengarth
Music by Franz Waxman
Production
company
Distributed byUniversal Pictures
Release date
  • August 27, 1941 (1941-08-27)
Running time
96 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Unfinished Business is a 1941 American romantic comedy film directed by Gregory La Cava and starring Irene Dunne, Robert Montgomery and Preston Foster. [1] It was produced and distributed by Universal Pictures.

Contents

Plot

On a train to New York City, small-town singer Nancy Andrews meets and falls in love with sophisticated playboy Steve Duncan. However, Steve ignores her when they reach their destination.

Rejected following an opera audition, Nancy must take a job as a telephone operator performing singing telegrams. Nightclub impresario Billy Ross likes her voice and offers her a job. At the club, Steve's brother and attorney Tommy Duncan becomes inebriated and reveals that Steve is soon to marry another woman. Nancy, also drunk, agrees to escape with Tommy to South Carolina for a quick elopement.

The following day, Tommy discovers that Nancy does not love him. After they return to New York and throw a party, Nancy kisses Steve, angering Steve's new wife and Tommy's old girlfriend. In his disappointment, Tommy enlists in the army and leaves for a year.

When Tommy returns, he punches Steve and prepares to grant Nancy her divorce. However, he learns that he and Nancy are parents of a baby boy and that she is overjoyed to know that Tommy still loves her.

Cast

Reception

In a contemporary review for The New York Times , critic Bosley Crowther wrote:

Any picture which brings Irene Dunne and Robert Montgomery to a state of matrimony, with the directorial blessing of Gregory La Cava, must, perforce and in truth, have a great deal to recommend it. And a great deal of random charm and pleasantly caustic humor there is, without any dispute, in Universal's 'Unfinished Business,' which provides that denouement in a manner somewhat less than harmonious but sufficiently withal ... But this oddly 'Unfinished Business,' in which they are so desperately involved, is something to tax the credulity of even the most lenient mind. ... In brief. like many another picture, it makes a romantic plot but not much sense. ... Mr. La Cava has done a lot to disguise a foolish script with glib action, but the trick doesn't quite come off. The unfinished business here lies dead in someone's typewriter. [2]

Related Research Articles

<i>Love Affair</i> (1939 film) 1939 American romance film directed by Leo McCarey

Love Affair is a 1939 American romance film, co-starring Charles Boyer and Irene Dunne, and featuring Maria Ouspenskaya. It was directed by Leo McCarey and written by Delmer Daves and Donald Ogden Stewart, based on a story by McCarey and Mildred Cram. Controversial on concept, the official screenplay was re-tooled and rewritten to appease Hollywood censorship and relied on actor input and improvisation, causing long delays and budget extensions.

<i>My Man Godfrey</i> 1936 American comedy-drama film directed by Gregory La Cava

My Man Godfrey is a 1936 American screwball comedy film directed by Gregory La Cava and starring William Powell and Carole Lombard, who had been briefly married years before appearing together in the film. The screenplay for My Man Godfrey was written by Morrie Ryskind, with uncredited contributions by La Cava, based on 1101 Park Avenue, a short novel by Eric S. Hatch. The story concerns a socialite who hires a derelict to be her family's butler, and then falls in love with him.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Irene Dunne</span> American actress (1898–1990)

Irene Dunne was an American actress who appeared in films during the Golden Age of Hollywood. She is best known for her comedic roles, though she performed in films of other genres.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gregory La Cava</span> American film director

Gregory La Cava was an American film director of Italian descent best known for his films of the 1930s, including My Man Godfrey and Stage Door, which earned him nominations for Academy Award for Best Director.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre</span> Acting school in New York City

The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre is a professional conservatory for actors in New York City. First operational from 1915 to 1927, the school re-opened in 1928 and has been active ever since. It is the birthplace of the Meisner technique of acting, named for American actor and acting teacher Sanford Meisner.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alice Ghostley</span> American actress (1923–2007)

Alice Margaret Ghostley was an American actress and singer on stage, film and television.

Emily of New Moon is a Canadian television series, which aired on CBC Television from 1998 to 2000. The series originally aired in the United States on the Cookie Jar Toons block on This TV and it is currently broadcast in Canada on the Viva, Bravo! and Vision TV cable channels. The series, produced by Salter Street Films, was based on the Emily of New Moon series of novels by Lucy Maud Montgomery. The series consisted of three seasons of thirteen episodes and one season of seven episodes, for a total of forty-six episodes produced. The executive producers were Micheline Charest, Michael Donovan, and Ronald Weinberg.

<i>Magnificent Obsession</i> (1935 film) 1935 film by John M. Stahl

Magnificent Obsession is a 1935 drama film based on the 1929 novel of the same name by Lloyd C. Douglas. The film was adapted by Sarah Y. Mason, Victor Heerman, and George O'Neil, directed by John M. Stahl, and stars Irene Dunne, Robert Taylor, Charles Butterworth, and Betty Furness.

The comedy of remarriage is a subgenre of American comedy films of the 1930s and 1940s. At the time, the Production Code, also known as the Hays Code, banned any explicit references to or attempts to justify adultery and illicit sex. The comedy of remarriage with the same spouse enabled filmmakers to evade this provision of the Code. The protagonists divorced, flirted, or even had relationships, with strangers without risking the wrath of censorship, and then got back together.

<i>Love Affair</i> (1994 film) 1994 film by Glenn Gordon Caron

Love Affair is a 1994 American romantic drama film and a remake of the 1939 film of the same name. It was directed by Glenn Gordon Caron and produced by Warren Beatty from a screenplay by Robert Towne and Beatty, based on the 1939 screenplay by Delmer Daves and Donald Ogden Stewart, based on the story by Mildred Cram and Leo McCarey. The music score was by Ennio Morricone and the cinematography by Conrad L. Hall.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Paige</span> American actor, newscaster (1911–1987)

Robert Paige was an American actor and a TV newscaster and political correspondent and Universal Pictures leading man who made 65 films in his lifetime.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nella Walker</span> American actress (1886–1971)

Nella Walker was an American actress and vaudeville performer of the 1920s through the 1950s.

<i>Five and Ten</i> (1931 film) 1931 American romantic drama film

Five and Ten is a 1931 American pre-Code romantic drama film directed by an uncredited Robert Z. Leonard and starring Marion Davies, Leslie Howard and Irene Rich. Davies plays as an heiress and Howard the man she loves, though he marries someone else. The film was produced by William Randolph Hearst's Cosmopolitan Productions in partnership with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It is based on the 1929 Fannie Hurst novel of the same name.

<i>Smart Woman</i> (1931 film) 1931 film

Smart Woman is a 1931 pre-Code comedy-romance and drama film directed by Gregory La Cava and starring Mary Astor, Robert Ames, and John Halliday.

<i>Strangers May Kiss</i> 1931 film

Strangers May Kiss is a 1931 American pre-Code drama film produced and released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and noncredit-directed by George Fitzmaurice. The movie stars Norma Shearer, Robert Montgomery and Neil Hamilton. The movie was an adaptation of the book Strangers May Kiss, which was written by Ursula Parrott.

Lady in a Jam is a 1942 film comedy directed by Gregory La Cava and starring Irene Dunne, Patric Knowles, Ralph Bellamy, and Eugene Pallette. It was made and distributed by Universal Pictures. The film's sets were designed by the art director Jack Otterson.

<i>Nancy Astor</i> (TV series) British television series

Nancy Astor is a British television series which originally aired on BBC Two in 1982. It portrays the career of Nancy Astor, the American-born socialite and Conservative Party politician who pioneered the role of women in the House of Commons.

<i>The City Chap</i> (musical) 1925 comedy

The City Chap is a musical comedy with music by Jerome Kern, lyrics by Anne Caldwell and book by James Montgomery adapted from the play The Fortune Hunter by Winchell Smith.

References

  1. Fetrow p.551
  2. "Irene Dunne and Robert Montgomery Pick Up 'Unfinished Business,' at the Rivoli". The New York Times . 1941-09-02. p. 20.

Bibliography