The greatest movie ever made..!

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Two buddies are making their last runs as commercial pilots before going into the Army Air Corps in this 1943 comedy romance. Robert Cummings plays Eddie O'Rourke and Jack Carson plays Dave Campbell. But Eddie's future is drastically altered when a woman passenger, Mary Williams, boards their plane heading for California. She is Princess Maria (from some undisclosed European country) who is traveling incognito. Olivia de Havilland plays Maria/Mary who happily takes sleeping pills from several people to be able to sleep on her flight from New York.But bad weather at all points ahead soon forces the plane to return to New York. Only her royal guardian, Maria's uncle Holman, doesn't know about this until later. Charles Coburn plays Holman with his usual wit and frequently dry humor. Eddie takes charge of the sleepy drugged Mary and tries to locate her family, to no avail. Finally, he calls Dave and his wife, Jean (played by Jane Wyman), who go to his apartment where Jean puts Mary to bed.From there the fun continues as Uncle Holman is joined by the U.S. State Department and police in trying to locate the missing princess. They think she has been kidnapped.This is a light, fun film with a very far-fetched plot (the displaced royalty in America during the war). The cast all are very good, and it has some interesting little insights of history. I noticed that one of the shooting locations was the White House at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C. And, that dog that we see! Could it be President Roosevelt's own Scottish Terrier, Fala? According to sources, including Wikipedia, Fala was played in this film by a stand-in pooch named Whiskers.Many movies about World War II have shown the preparedness at home in England, and some American home front films have shown women taking up jobs in industry. But I don't recall any film before this that showed emergency training and support by women in the U.S. I don't know if the women's support group here was real or fictitious but a couple funny lines came at its expense. When Eddie suggests they go see the sights together, Jean says she can't until later because it's her day to work with the women's volunteer group. Dave says, "She's a major lieutenant." Eddie says "A major lieutenant? There's no such thing." Dave says, "There is in her crew. Everybody's something. Mrs. Maloney is a double sergeant general colonel, second class."Another plus in this film is a look inside an early 1940s commercial aircraft that had sleeping berths. People today may find it hard to believe, but before deregulation of the airline industry in the late 1970s, airlines used to offer many amenities on board. My first flight was in 1962, but I had never seen a plane with sleeping berths. The one the boys are flying in this film seems more like a Pullman railroad car inside the cabin. Pullman sleeping cars were a thing of the past by the late 1960s, but a number of older films have scenes that show us what they looked like.Bob Cummings actually served in the Army Air Force during WW II. He joined in November 1942 and served as a flight instructor. While this film came out in late October, 1943, that was a year after it had been made. Cummings was taught to fly while in high school in Joplin, MO, by his godfather, Orville Wright. Wright and his brother Wilbur were the first men to build and successfully fly a plane – in 1903 at Kitty Hawk, NC.Cummings gave high school friends rides in his plane. When the U.S. government began licensing flight instructors, Bob Cummings was issued the very first flight instructor certificate. Besides his flying credentials, Cummings had a very colorful background in acting. He successfully imitated an upper crust Englishman to gain stage roles in England and on Broadway. He later portrayed a rich Texan to get a start in films in Hollywood. In the 1930s he reverted to his real name and had a successful career in comedy, drama and mystery films, and on radio and TV shows through the 1950s.Cummings isn't remembered much today, but he was well known and liked for his talent in the mid-20th century. He never became a super star, but played in some memorable films and with top performers of the day. He began using methamphetamines in the mid-1950s and his addiction hurt his career from then on and contributed to two divorces. He died of kidney failure and pneumonia at age 80 in 1990.This film is light entertainment with some fine movie stars of the time. It's a fun film fit for the whole family.

Princess O'Rourke does not try to be amusing or clever, but instead it deftly combines funny situations with a sort of real-life seriousness. A viewer may get the impression that this is really how a princess (Olivia de Havilland) would behave if faced with the predicament of falling for a commoner in another country-- if, in fact, it would happen at all. Yet there is something believable about this hokum, because the film possesses a calmness and dignity, in large part due to the presence of Miss de Havilland. Robert Cummings as the leading man is both romantic and comic; while Charles Coburn and Jane Wyman deliver strong supporting performances. The film's strongest asset, though, is the writing. The basic premise seems to cover all sorts of angles and suggests that love and politics intersect but do not necessarily mix. The story moves forward with ease, and a highlight of the proceedings is the friendship that develops between de Havilland and Wyman.

This certainly ranks among the weakest winners of a top Oscar (best original screenplay, written by the director) from Hollywood's golden age; interestingly enough, all its competitors were not only war pictures (which may well have resulted in a lockdown!) but superior to it – AIR FORCE, IN WHICH WE SERVE (1942), THE NORTH STAR and, the only one I have yet to watch, SO PROUDLY WE HAIL! It is a frothy romantic comedy by Warner Bros. whose concern with nobility, tradition and duty must have seemed pretty old hat and not a little silly during wartime! Olivia De Havilland had outgrown her Errol Flynn leading lady mode by this time, landing even a couple of Academy Award nominations into the bargain – and two statuettes would be coming her way before the decade was out; with this in mind, comedy was never her forte, which is amply proved here – not that the role offered much in the way of inspiration!While a modicum of pleasure is derived throughout from the complications that invariably arise when traveling European princess De Havilland is mistaken for a refugee by pilot Robert Cummings, it too often targets real neurotic ailments like Curt Bois' nervous tick and De Havilland's own insomnia (which sees her downing some six sleeping pills in quick succession from four different people!). In the heroine's eagerness to do her bit for the war effort, she even agrees to serve as a live dummy for trainee nurses.The supporting cast includes old reliables such as Charles Coburn and a wasted Gladys Cooper as De Havilland's rather insufferable uncle (the exact opposite to his impish character in Ernst Lubitsch's HEAVEN CAN WAIT from the same year!) and secretary respectively, Jack Carson and a young Jane Wyman as Cummings' pal and his (atypically glamorous for her) wife, and Harry Davenport as a Justice of the Peace brought in to marry the two leads against Coburn's wishes.The latter scene occurs during a state visit to the White House – where Cummings is eventually obliged to drop his American citizenship if he is to become Prince Consort (but which he vehemently refuses to do) – and which even presumes us to swallow the ruse that the American president would disguise himself as a cop and stand guard at the door behind which the clandestine ceremony is taking place!!

Firstly, I have to comment that Olivia de Havilland looks absolutely beautiful in this movie, and that is just as well, because the story is fairly flimsy and Robert Cummings is even out of his depth in this. (despite the foregoing, this film pre-dated "Roman Holiday" which has a very similar story line). The usual Warner stalwarts in Jack Carson and Jane Wyman had familiar roles which I am sure they could have played with their eyes shut, but it was so disappointing to see that wonderful actress Gladys Cooper in a five minute role as a secretary, and insulting to someone of her class. Charles Coburn was a good foil for the comings and goings of the lead characters. Somehow, one gets the feeling that this film, and a few others like it, would have been the reasons for Miss de Havilland going on suspension so often at Warner Brothers.