To me, this movie is perfection.

It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

With a trio of hugely talented actors (Rogers, Holden and Douglas) and a script written by the Epstein Brothers (who wrote Casablanca) this viewer was expecting a delightful comedy. Alas, alas, alas, this is a clunker of monumental proportions with an AWFUL script (adapted from a play by J.M. Barrie -- who wrote Peter Pan) and painfully sluggish direction by Irving Rapper (who directed four of Better Davis' better movies). The script has the appearance of being thrown together beside a Hollywood swimming pool over a weekend with the minimum of thought or imagination. The characters' actions and motives are horribly unconvincing and do such a huge disservice to the three actors in the main roles. The ingenue role, played by Pat Crowley, who at the end of the movie is proudly proclaimed as a future Paramount star (ever heard of her, outside of television?) is endlessly irritating. Watching her act, this viewer couldn't help but think how much better the young Debbie Reynolds would have been in the role. Luckily for her, she was an MGM star and missed being saddled with this awful dreck. With undertones of All About Eve, a younger actress coveting a role played by an older actress, the story is leaden and dull in the extreme. Aside from consigning this one to the vaults and slamming the door shut FOREVER, one is left with such a feeling of sadness for so much dazzling talent so badly wasted.

Charming, slight piece of entertainment sold by it top lined stars and almost scuttled by its featured player.Ginger Rogers and Paul Douglas are most happily matched as the formerly married couple who are still best friends, a great Broadway star and her producer. Their interchanges are expertly played by two pros who are easy in each others company and really seem like they would have been together for years. Her gentle ribbing of him over back alimony is sweet and believable and actually provides a bit of insight into her character. She doesn't really expect to ever get it but neither does she ever plan to write it off either nor does she let get in the way of their relationship.William Holden's part is secondary to the story although he is prominently featured due to his star status. He is his usual charismatic self making the minor part much better than it is. One ironic note is that in a story about Ginger Roger's character realizing she's too old for the ingénue role in Holden's play they cast an actor who is too old for his part. The playwright the way he is referenced should be in his early twenties, Holden extremely handsome and youthful though he may be is 35 if he's a day. He can't be held responsible for that since contract actors were routinely assigned parts at the studios whim.Where the picture runs into trouble is the performance of Pat Crowley in what clearly was planned as a star making part. That didn't happen most probably due to the fact that as directed a more annoying, grating, jejune enactment of a character couldn't be possible. As she constantly proclaims that she is a great talent and better than anyone could imagine you want to push her out of the frame. The actress who did go on to some degree of fame, most notably as the star of TV's Please Don't Eat the Daisies, has proved to be an enjoyable presence elsewhere so the direction must be at fault but she really is hammy and unpleasant here.Many fine character actors, James Gleason, Jesse White, George Reeves, Maidie Norman etc., add nice little touches throughout and hey look in one short scene its the future Mrs. C herself: Marion Ross just starting out.A good comedy played by experts just ignore the ham-bone on the side of the action.

This is a very good film that manages to entertain even though one of the characters was atrociously written. The film begins with a cocky young playwright (William Holden) being discovered. Although he's managed to offend a famous Broadway star (Ginger Rogers), he's also impressed her with his talent and good looks. The problem is that she wants to star in his play--even though she is WAY too old for the part. Even though they re-write it for her to play a character 10 years older, she still is too old for the part. But he wants the play to be produced and he's also in love with her. What's he to do?! And, what's he to do about Sally Carver--a spunky young actress who would be perfect for the part? While Holden, Rogers and Paul Douglas all did great because they were real professionals and their parts were well written, I couldn't say the same for Pat Crowley (who played Sally). Although her character was supposed to be very eager and raw, she often came off as annoying and obnoxious. Her constant use of the word 'Siamese' and brash persona really turned me off--as I am sure it did for the audience. It's surprising, since the studio appeared to be grooming her for stardom--and the film's credits point out that she's a new discovery. But, if you can block out her character (at least until she evolves into a REALISTIC person later in the film), you will see a cool film--one that gives Rogers a chance to stretch herself and play a riskier role--an actress whose vanity is getting in the way of common sense. Well worth seeing.

Playwright William Holden finds he can't handle leading lady Ginger Rogers, whom he miscasts in his play, presenting her as a 29 year old when she should play the character's mother instead. Rogers is an aging actress who won't face the music about the age while promising actress Patricia Crowley is anxious to play the role Holden had originally conceived to be 19. Crowley, who sounds amazingly like Ginger, tries to win Ginger's love (and the part) while Rogers' producer ex-husband Paul Douglas fights his undying feelings for her (admitting that their marriage was horrid) while keeping her career going.The obvious comparisons to "All About Eve" (complete with Broadway archetypes such as press agent Jesse White) can't be avoided (much of the story is set in Sardi's), but this is more of a spoof of that great drama with obvious camp moments. Hollywood doesn't always do justice to its presentations of what life in the theatre is like, but this one manages to be acceptable. Like he did in 1950's "Sunset Boulevard", Holden plays a writer, but this character is as far from the role of Joe as you can get; In fact, his character works part-time in a grocery store! Rogers, still beautiful and charming (as her actress on screen is constantly referred to as), seems to enjoy spoofing her image, but is much less caustic than Bette Davis's Margo Channing in "All About Eve", and Crowley's starlet (who does refrigerator commercials) is no Eve Harrington. Crowley, later a star of sitcoms ("Please Don't Eat the Daisies") and soaps ("Generations", "Port Charles") is a promising ingénue (getting special billing as the film ends), but is far too young for Holden.Overall, the film is interesting, basically a well-written sitcom with some nice character performances by veteran James Gleason as Holden's Broadway pal and Maidie Norman ("Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?") as Rogers' maid.