"The Lady is Willing" is a very good comedy, drama and love story that pairs two fine actors with a good supporting cast. The plot is built around a couple of far-fetched premises, but with a well-crafted screenplay. Marlene Dietrich is Broadway star Liza Madden who one day walks into her apartment suite with a baby. Fred MacMurray is Dr. Corey McBain, an obstetrician who's called in to look at her baby. When baby Joanna turns out to be a boy, whom Liza later names Corey, the comedy is in full swing.
This isn't a romance in the usual sense, but a slowly developing love story of a woman for a baby, then a man, and man for a woman and a baby. Humor fills the first three-fourths, with the drama and love clinching the end. There are lots or rabbits here as well - but not the full 365,422 that Dr. McBain needs to prove his research. This is the only full comedy that Dietrich ever made, let alone starred in. Her funny lines are very good, but the most priceless of the humor is in her facial expressions after she has committed some foible that has been noted by someone else.
Dietrich plays a strong-willed, big name actress who has a big heart. She makes tons of money but gives much of it away to many people whom she calls "pensioners," but whom her secretary and business manager call leeches. She is also making payments for several years of back taxes owed to the IRS. So, one might wonder about her secretary and business manager who have been with her for many years.
But, that's part of the comedy, with Aline MacMahon as Liza's secretary, Buddy, and Stanley Ridges as her business manager and agent, Kenneth Hanline. They are sources of much of the humor. This isn't a rollicking funny film throughout. It's loaded with humor in the first half which then segues to a warm-hearted comedy and slowly emerging love story.
MacMurray gives in to Liza's marriage business arrangement so that he can start his research for a cure of pneumonia. It lets him stop his private practice and start raising and testing 365,422 rabbits. McBain has been married once before, and that comes into the film in a way that transitions it from comedy to drama. The ending is quite good with a lesson in love and trust.
The script is very good with loads of good dialog. Here are some favorite lines.
Buddy, "Whose little act of God is this you've swiped?" Liza Madden, "Isn't she wonderful?"
Buddy, "Oh, stop schmoozing over that kid and tell us where you got it." Liza, "I took her." Buddy, "Ken!" Kenneth Hanline, "You mean you kidnapped here?" Liza, "Oh, Ken, you've got an obscene mind - and you're a bad influence."
Liza Madden, "This poor little thing must be catching something from Ken. Go sanitize yourself, Ken. With all that money you handle and everything."
Liza Madden, on the telephone, "Doctor, this is Elizabeth Madden. Would you rush right over here and take a look at my baby?... Symptoms? Doctor, if I could recognize symptoms, I would be a doctor not an actress.... What age?...About two."
Dr. Corey McBain, "I was called her to examine a two-year-old child." Liza Madden, "Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes. Here she is. My own precious darling Joanna." Dr. McBain, "This? This is an infant of about 8 or 9 months." Liza, "Oh, yes, yes, that was a slight mistake about the age. She's so smart that I always think of her as being much older."
Dr. McBain, "Miss Madden, might I suggest that you choose a different name for, uh, Joanna. She, uh, happens to be a male." Liza, "What? A boy? But that can't be. He, I mean, she, I mean, he was wearing all pink. He just can't be a boy. Everybody knows that girls wear pink and boys wear blue - don't you know that?" Dr. McBain, "Miss Madden, many years ago, medical science discovered a much better way of segregating boys and girls than by the color of their clothing."
Liza Madden, "A boy's so much less likely to get into trouble than a girl."
Liza Madden, "Don't you like any of them, darling? He just sits there." Buddy, "I remember an audience in Cedar Rapids once that behaved the same way."
Ken Hanline, "Call him catastrophe." Liza Madden, "Oh no, that's much too long."
Detective Sgt. Barnes, "Murphy here and the other witnesses say this lady was wearing the screwiest had they'd ever seen." Buddy, laughing almost hysterically, "That's hardly a distinguishing characteristic these days." Sgt. Barnes, "So, we come here and we ask the bellboys what lady wears the screwiest hats and every one of 'em says, 'Miss Madden.'" Liza Madden, "Well, the bellboys. What do they know about hats anyway?"
Detective Sgt. Barnes, "So, we thought you wouldn't mind if we looked around, just to see if we could sort of find a baby that perhaps you hadn't noticed."
Liza Madden, "Frankly, Mrs. Cummings, don't you think it's rather ridiculous - suspecting me of kidnapping?" Mrs. Cummings, "On the contrary. We have many similar cases. It happens every day. Generally to women whose lives have been so selfish that they've never experienced the normal feelings of love and self-sacrifice."
Buddy, "Are you English?" Dr. Corey McBain, "No, Nebraska. Why?" Buddy, "You keep understating everything."
Dr. Corey McBain, "I wanted something too, once - something I couldn't have". Liza Madden, "A baby?" Dr. McBain, "No, not a baby - rabbits. Three hundred and sixty-five thousand, four hundred and twenty-two rabbits."
Dr. Corey McBain, "And 17 generations of rabbits is 365,422 rabbits."
Liza Madden, "Nobody who likes rabbits could be very vicious." Dr. Corey McBain, "Oh, I'm not, but... well, you just don't marry people on the same day you examine their babies."
