''Without Reservations'' is a 1946

RKO Radio Pictures RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, was an American film production and distribution company, one of the "Big Five" film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orph ...

American

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending ( black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the o ...

directed by

Mervyn LeRoy Mervyn LeRoy (; October 15, 1900 – September 13, 1987) was an American film director and producer. In his youth he played juvenile roles in vaudeville and silent film comedies. During the 1930s, LeRoy was one of the two great practitioners of ...

and starring Claudette Colbert,

John Wayne Marion Robert Morrison (May 26, 1907 – June 11, 1979), known professionally as John Wayne and nicknamed The Duke or Duke Wayne, was an American actor who became a popular icon through his starring roles in films made during Hollywood's Go ...

and

Don DeFore Donald John DeFore (August 25, 1913 – December 22, 1993) was an American actor. He is best known for his roles in the sitcom ''The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet'' from 1952 to 1957 and the sitcom ''Hazel'' from 1961 to 1965, the former of w ...

. The film was adapted by

Andrew Solt Andrew Solt (born 13 December 1947) is a British-born American producer, director, and writer of documentary films. Solt has had a long career in television. A frequent focus of his documentaries is rock and roll music, its history and star pe ...

from the novel ''Thanks, God! I'll Take It From Here'' by Jane Allen and Mae Livingston.

Plot

Successful author Christopher "Kit" Madden travels to

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...

to work on the film adaptation of her bestselling book ''Here is Tomorrow''. The film was originally supposed to star

Cary Grant Cary Grant (born Archibald Alec Leach; January 18, 1904November 29, 1986) was an English-American actor. He was known for his Mid-Atlantic accent, debonair demeanor, light-hearted approach to acting, and sense of comic timing. He was one of ...

as the

Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

pilot hero Mark Winston and Lana Turner, but Grant has withdrawn and the producer wants an unknown actor to play Winston. On a train to Hollywood, Kit meets two Marine pilots, captain "Rusty" Thomas and first lieutenant "Dink" Watson. She considers Rusty the best choice to play Winston, but he is dismissive of her book, as she wrote a political allegory and he does not believe that Grant would refuse Turner for 400 pages. Unsure how he will react if he discovers that she is a famous writer, she keeps her identity secret, saying that her name is Kitty Kloch. After they are expelled from the train for drunkenness in a remote prairie town, they trade Rusty's German war souvenir for a car. They are welcomed at the farm of a large Hispanic family whose daughter showers attention on Rusty, but they flee following a misunderstanding. When Rusty finally learns Kit's true identity, he thinks that she has been using him just so that he will appear in the film. However, they eventually reach Hollywood and resolve their differences.

Cast

* Claudette Colbert as Christopher "Kit" Madden *

as Capt. "Rusty" Thomas *

as 1st Lt. "Dink" Watson *

Anne Triola Anne Margaret Triola (September 25, 1920 – July 27, 2012) was an American singer, musician, and actress of stage, film, and television. As a comedian and supporting actress, she got her start singing in Hollywood night clubs. Triola made her ...

as Consuela "Connie" Callaghan * Phil Brown as soldier * Frank Puglia as Ortega * Thurston Hall as Henry Baldwin * Dona Drake as Dolores Ortega * Fernando Alvarado as Mexican boy * Charles Arnt as salesman *

Louella Parsons Louella Parsons (born Louella Rose Oettinger; August 6, 1881 – December 9, 1972) was an American movie columnist and a screenwriter. She was retained by William Randolph Hearst because she had championed Hearst's mistress Marion Davies and s ...

as herself * Frank Wilcox as Jack *

Sam McDaniel Samuel Rufus McDaniel (January 28, 1886September 24, 1962)Tanner, Beccy (November 7, 1991)"McDaniel Opened Doors; 'Gone With the Wind' Was Actress' Most Famous Film" ''The Wichita Eagle''. Retrieved January 3, 2021. was an American actor who ap ...

as Freddy * Lisa Golm as Alma Cast notes: *

Jack Benny Jack Benny (born Benjamin Kubelsky, February 14, 1894 – December 26, 1974) was an American entertainer who evolved from a modest success playing violin on the vaudeville circuit to one of the leading entertainers of the twentieth century wit ...

, Dolores Moran,

Raymond Burr Raymond William Stacy Burr (May 21, 1917September 12, 1993) was a Canadian actor known for his lengthy Hollywood film career and his title roles in television dramas '' Perry Mason'' and '' Ironside''. Burr's early acting career included roles ...

and

make uncredited cameo appearances, as does director

Production

The film was originally budgeted at $1.1 million and was titled ''Thanks, God! I'll Take it from Here''. The Arrowhead Pictures motion-picture studio shown in the opening shot is the actual RKO Radio Pictures building at 780 Gower Street in

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywoo ...

Reception

The film returned a profit of $342,000.Richard B. Jewell, ''Slow Fade to Black: The Decline of RKO Radio Pictures'',

University of California Press The University of California Press, otherwise known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish scholarly and scientific works by facul ...

, 2016,

References

External links