Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

Admirable film.

Blistering performances.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

This move is filled with smiles and laughter. Doris Day didn't just make great social comedies with Rock Hudson. Before, after and in between "Pillow Talk" and "Send Me No Flowers," she romped through comedies with James Garner, Rod Taylor, Clark Gable, Cary Grant and others. She sang and danced in musicals with Frank Sinatra, Gordon MacRae, Howard Keel, Jimmy Durante, and Danny Thomas. And, the versatile Day showed she could act very well in dramas and suspense- thrillers with James Stewart, Rex Harrison, Louis Jordan, James Cagney and Kirk Douglas. "It Happened to Jane" is a wonderful comedy and light romance with two great comedy co-stars, Jack Lemmon and Ernie Kovacs. Apparently, this was re-released two years later under another title, "Twinkle and Shine." Kovacs is the perfect cad – "the meanest man in the world." He is Harry Foster Malone, chairman of the E&P Railroad, who can't be bothered by small town Maine lobster dealer, Jane Osgood (Day). But, when her friend and small town attorney, George Denham (Jack Lemmon) helps her sue the E&P for damages because of its foul-up, Malone has met his match. When the controversy draws New York news media attention, Malone has to concede to save face. But, just as we think Jane has succeeded and gotten a fair deal, Malone pulls some more shenanigans to try to derail her. This happens a few times in the film. It all builds up to more entertainment and fun.This is a fun-filled film that the whole family should enjoy

Doris is full of pluck and moxie fighting a big corporate jerk who actually seems unhinged in his singular quest to squash the hard working widow Jane. Jack is the earnest lawyer who has loved her since childhood. Together they make a wonderful pair as they go through no end of complications that drive them apart and united them again. Charming comedy was an inexplicable failure on its initial release probably in large part because of that atrocious title. It's re-release title of Twinkle and Shine was hardly an improvement, why they didn't stick with the initial title of That Jane from Maine which would have fit it perfectly is a mystery. Be that as it may this is a cute family comedy with wonderful location shooting and high production values as well as a super supporting cast.

Entertaining A-budget production, but too plot-heavy to really succeed as a comedy, despite the heavyweight talents of Lemmon, Kovacs, Day, and director Quine. In short, the comedic moments have to compete with too many plot developments in a screenplay more seriously complex than most comedy set-ups. Strong-willed Day is determined not to be bested by railroad tyrant Kovacs in getting her lobster business going. Throw in a romantic triangle and Lemmon's political ambition and you've got a crowded storyline. Nonetheless, all the principals are in fine form—Day's all sunny spunk, Lemmon's a slightly pixilated attorney, while Kovacs does his usual moustache-twirling villain.As entertaining as these characters are, the movie really succeeds as a slice of idealized Americana. Whoever decided to film in an actual New England small town and use the residents for the many crowd scenes deserves a medal. The resulting visuals are a permanent record of small town America at mid-century and wonderfully colorful to look at. There's a bit of Norman Rockwell nostalgia in some of the set-ups that could have come off a Saturday Evening Post cover, especially those around the train station. And what could be more popularly American than the little guy (gal) besting the big guy at his own game. I just wish the script had eliminated the unnecessary and non-comedic Day/Forrest subplot, and instead mixed in more interaction between Kovacs and Lemmon whose chemistry is superb as shown in the under-rated Operation Mad Ball (1957). Nonetheless, there are enough compensations to make this a very watchable 90 minute diversion.

On paper this must have seemed a pretty good bet, after all Little Man Takes On The Big Guys is always good for a premise so Little GAL takes on the Big Guys must be worth twice the money; cast Doris Day as the little Gal and you're rounding third while the ball's still climbing and how about that new guy Lemmon to co-star. Jeez! What a GREAT idea; he made his movie DEBUT in It Should Happen To You so Lemmon in a movie with Happen(ed) in the title is a lead-pipe cinch. If only. Somehow there's just no chemistry between Day and Lemmon although both are fine individually and Ernie Kovacs is really OTT as the cut-out cartoon heavy who has a completely unrealistic volte face in the last reel. The idea of an ordinary housewife capturing the hearts of the public was sound enough for Day to repeat it much more successfully in The Thrill Of It All a few years later. This is just about up to one viewing but that's it.