Perfect Strangers (1950 film)

Perfect Strangers

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Bretaigne Windust
Produced by Jerry Wald
Screenplay by Edith Sommer
Based on adaptation by
George Oppenheimer
Starring Ginger Rogers
Dennis Morgan
Music by Leigh Harline
Cinematography Peverell Marley
Edited by David Weisbart
Distributed by Warner Bros.
Release dates
  • March 11, 1950 (1950-03-11)
Running time
88 minutes
Country United States
Language English

Perfect Strangers is a 1950 American comedy-drama directed by Bretaigne Windust.[1][2] The screenplay for the Warner Bros. release by Edith Sommer was based on an adaptation of the 1939 Ben Hecht-Charles MacArthur play Ladies and Gentlemen by George Oppenheimer. This 1939 play was based on an earlier Hungarian play, Twelve in a Box written by Lazlo Bush-Fekete.[3]

Plot

Terry Scott (Ginger Rogers), who is separated from her husband, and unhappily married David Campbell (Dennis Morgan), the father of two children, meet when they are selected to serve on the jury of the Los Angeles trial of Ernest Craig (Ford Rainey). The defendant is charged with murdering his wife when she refused to grant him a divorce. While sequestered during the lengthy proceedings, Terry and David get to know each other and fall in love. Some dramatic tension is added to the plot by juror Isobel Bradford (Margalo Gillmore), a snobby socialite who tries to sway the panel to vote for the death penalty.

Cast

Unbilled (in order of appearance)

Critical reception

In his review in The New York Times, Bosley Crowther described the film as "modest entertainment" and "an obviously hacked out affair which turns on a bit of terminal plotting that is flatly mechanical and contrived . . . the limits of plausibility are unmistakably stretched . . . Miss Rogers and Mr. Morgan are pretty dreary throughout the film. However, their fellow jurors are a remarkably entertaining lot, picturesque in theatrical fashion, and the minor salvation of the show."[4]

See also

References

  1. Variety film review; March 1, 1950, page 6.
  2. Harrison's Reports film review; March 4, 1950, page 35.
  3. Lorraine LoBianco. "Perfect Strangers (1950)". Turner Classic Movies.
  4. New York Times review
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