One Touch of Venus
Based on a Broadway musical with the remarkable collaboration of Kurt Weill, S.J. Perelman, and Ogden Nash, the film version seems to have removed everything distinctive about those men. Most of the songs were jettisoned, and substituted with bland ones. Although there are few instances of some wit, it's a rather tired, stale farce.
Robert Walker plays Eddie Hatch, a dresser at a big department store. The owner of the store (the marvelously sophisticated Tom Conway) has just purchased a statue of Venus. Before the unveiling, Walker is fixing the drapes when he takes a sip of champagne and impulsively kisses the statue. After a bolt of lighting, it comes to life, looks like Ava Gardner, and is in love with Walker.
This causes all sorts of problems. First of all, the statue is now presumed stolen, and Walker is suspected. Secondly, Walker is engaged to Olga San Juan, and she's the jealous type. Conway will eventually fall in love with Gardner (he doesn't know she's Venus), though Conway's secretary, Eve Arden, is in love with him.
This bit of musical chairs tries to be charming, but it just doesn't work. Part of the problem is Walker, who was so good and indelible as the creepy killer in Strangers on a Train. This kind of nebbish just doesn't suit him, and it's kind of hard to believe a man would resist Gardner, even if she was a love goddess who was previously marble.
There are some things to like her. Arden plays the part she made famous, the sardonic single woman. It's kind of nice to see her finally get her man. She has one of the best lines in the movie. When Conway, preparing to seduce Gardner, says that Debussy has a way on woman, she responds with, "I always liked Buzzy Belew and His Musical Crew." Another good line is when Walker fantasizes about a life with Gardner and speculates on a life with her in a house in Ozone Park. That sounds like a line that could have been written by Perelman.
If this all sounds familiar, the film was remade as the 1987 film Mannequin.
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