OVP: Susan Slept Here (1954)

Film: Susan Slept Here (1954)
Stars: Dick Powell, Debbie Reynolds, Anne Francis, Alvy Moore, Glenda Farrell
Director: Frank Tashlin
Oscar History: 2 nominations (Best Original Song-"Hold My Hand" and Sound)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 1/5 stars

Occasionally you have to sort of do a mental check when you see an older movie.  You see the film and think, "different place, different time."  There's a film, in fact, that we'll be reviewing tomorrow that basically falls into this exact camp and you have to sort through the troubling aspects of the film to find what was considered great about it in the first place.  However, there's also a time when you realize a film was probably creepy to begin with, and that everyone should have recognized that pretty instantaneously.  That's the case with the dated, laughless, and occasionally disgusting Susan Slept Here.

(Spoilers Ahead) The film is about a struggling writer Mark Christopher (Powell) who has had writer's block and can't find his muse anymore after winning an Academy Award (in the one trope I actually quite enjoyed, even with all of its silliness, the Oscar actually narrates the film).  He had been planning on writing a script about a juvenile delinquent, and so a sergeant friend of his decides to bring a 17-year-old girl named Susan (Reynolds) to spend the night with him (platonically, or at least that's what he instructs) so that he can learn more about juvenile delinquents.

In a modern movie comedy, this would be the end of it.  Mark would teach Susan the error of her ways and she'd straighten up, while he'd learn to appreciate life more and not be so cynical.  But for Susan Slept Here, this is apparently the recipe for romance.  Mark decides to, in order to keep Susan out of a juvenile detention facility, marry the young girl despite the age difference, and in the process Susan falls madly in love with him.  The film continues on with Susan being encouraged by grown adults like Mark's housekeeper Maude (Farrell) and best friend Virgil (Moore) to go after their forlorn friend, and in the end Mark realizes that he's in love with Susan.

There are a lot of things not to like here, but let's start with the obvious.  I'm aware of the "different era" aspect of the script, particularly since my grandparents had a fifteen year age gap in their marriage relatively similar to the one between Reynolds and Moore in this film, but the film's preoccupation with her age makes me think less about "different era" and more on the constant stress that she's a kid.  It doesn't help that Powell is playing a character who is supposed to be 35 but he looks closer to 60 (he was in fact thirty years older than Reynolds, not fifteen).  This was his last onscreen appearance (he'd make the worst mistake of any filmmaker's career, ever, two years later when he decided to direct The Conqueror, a film where nearly half of the crew ended up getting cancer because it was filmed near a nuclear testing site in Nevada), and you can tell that his age was not matching up with the frothy musical comedies of his youth.

It also doesn't help that the film is constantly shoving Reynolds' youth and inexperience down our throats, but when she dresses up and plays house it's suddenly okay for Powell to fall in love with her.  Reynolds gives this her all, but she's way too sweet and perky to be believable as a juvenile delinquent, and while there's no explaining attraction, this relationship enters the territory of paraphilia, or at least skirts around it.

The film received two Oscar nominations, including one for Best Song, though oddly not for the much more prominent title song, but instead for the Don Cornell number "Hold My Hand," which plays over the record player on several key occasions during the film.  The song is fine, but its prominence in the film is overstated-it's essentially random background music and feels too generic to actually include as a choice of excellence by the Academy.  The same could be said for the Sound-the film does play around a little bit with different volumes, but as a rule it's pretty standard, and probably the only reason it got the nomination was for the bizarre (and wholly unnecessary) ballet dream sequence toward the end of the film, which again seems to trade a lot on Reynolds' sex appeal and is squelched by Powell being way too old for this part (he looks ridiculous in that sailor costume).

Those are my thoughts on this creepy, dated, and unfunny film.  Quite a number of people swear they love this movie-are you one of them?  If so, could you explain your rationale (I'd genuinely love to hear it)?  And what do you think of the film's two Oscar nominations?  Share in the comments!