Day-Time Wife Reviews

According to her published date of birth, gorgeous Linda Darnell was only 18 when she made this film, in which she plays Power's wife of two years. This was Power's fifth film of 1939 and a step in the right direction; he'd been so associated with heroic types that the time was right for him to expand into comedy. Power is a roofing executive who calls wife Darnell and tells her that he'll be home late that night (their second anniversary), since he has to work late at the office. Finding lipstick on his collar, Darnell consults her thrice-married pal Barnes, who tells Darnell to give the cad a dose of his own medicine. Darnell takes a job with Warren William, an architect with a good eye for structures, both concrete and flesh. Davis, the receptionist, warns Darnell about William's roaming hands with some funny lines. No one at the office knows Darnell is married or that William is one of Power's clients. One night, Darnell goes out to dinner with William (to make Power jealous), and they run into Power and secretary Barrie. It all becomes veddy Noel Coward as they go to William's penthouse. Then William's wife, Valerie, arrives and the party breaks up. Darnell invites Power and Barrie to spend the night at their apartment, but Barrie leaves, and the marriage is saved when Power sees the folly of his ways. Pretty strong stuff for 1939, when Gable couldn't even say "damn" in GONE WITH THE WIND without starting a controversy. Perhaps the censors were looking the other way when Zanuck slipped this picture past them. The funny script is given very tight direction by Power's pal, Gregory Ratoff, who will also be recalled for his excellent acting jobs in such films as ALL ABOUT EVE and EXODUS, and who also directed INTERMEZZO and THE CORSICAN BROTHERS. Four years after this, Darnell married cameraman Marley.