Pun Salad

Here's the problem: for me, Gregory Peck is Horatio Hornblower; Atticus Finch; Captain Ahab; Marlowe in The Guns of Navarone; and so on. So I have a hard time believing him in this role: New York City sportswriter Mike Hagen. He's not bad, mind you. But…

While in California, Mike meets Marilla (Lauren Bacall). They are mutually smitten and tie the knot. But the joke is that they really don't know that much about each other. Mike is a regular joe, immersed in the sports world, while Marilla is a fashion designer, with plenty of high society friends. That might be enough conflict for a plot right there, but (a) Mike, for some reason, finds it necessary to lie incessantly to Marilla about his previous girlfriend; (b) Mike's also writing about a local mobster's influence in the boxing scene, and the mobster's none too pleased. All these things work themselves out eventually, but it takes awhile.

It's not dreadful, but a lot of the jokes fall flat. Goodies: Jesse White, the lonely Maytag repairman, as a snitch! Edward Platt, the Chief himself, as the gangster irked with Mike! And Chuck Connors as one of his henchmen!