To me, this movie is perfection.

Sorry, this movie sucks

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

It's Christmas and two tough police officers think that juvenile delinquent Debby Reynolds deserves a chance to spend the holiday in a milieu more pleasant than "The Farm" towards which they're taking her. They drop her instead at the fulsomely decorated New York apartment of wealthy screenwriter Dick Powell. Powell is trying to write a story about misguided youth and the police reckon that they're doing both Powell and Reynolds a favor. They're not too worried about the couple playing doctor for the next day or two because Powell is 35 and a man of principle, while Reynolds is a seventeen-year-old, man-hating wildcat, introduced wearing a Sou'wester and by a loud and lingering ululation from off stage.Her howl shatters an ornamental bulb on the overdone white Christmas tree in Powell's apartment, and that's about the level of the story, as far as I saw it. I missed the last half hour or so.It was a play before it became a movie and its origins are on display. Everything takes place in Powell's modern and spacious flat. Powell has a male secretary, an old Navy buddy, Alvy Moore, who wears a goofy crew cut and whose presence allows for sardonic wisecracks about the shenanigans. People of all kinds run into the apartment shouting questions or orders. It's a madhouse, except for the imperturbable black maid, Maidie Norman, always cheerful and supportive. She'll scramble your eggs for you, despite Norman's own Master's degree from Columbia. She rather pretty too, in an exotic way -- my kind of woman.Dick Powell is okay as he slowly yields to the crush on him that Debby Reynold's develops. Given some old clothes, she quickly sheds her raincoat and sailor's cap and becomes the attractive, sensitive, and sassy woman we always knew she would be.But, man, this is one bland comedy, although the writer and the director, Frank Tashlin, give it everything they've got. Tashlin did just fine on "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter," where he had an effective script that knew where it was going. I suppose this script knows where it's headed too, but then so does the viewer after the first fifteen minutes. Every conceivable gag is milked dry. The machine-processed gags, the wisecracks, the awkward situations, the slapstick aren't really very funny. Yet people laughed at all this, which explains why democracy can never be a success.There's no edge to the comedy. The notion that anything of substance may happen can't be taken seriously. It's a movie about two people who gradually discover that the other isn't as bad as he or she thought at first. (Wow.) Powell seems to walk through the part as if he knew this was his last film appearance and, as a lame duck, he had nothing much to lose. The movie is almost saved by Debby Reynold's buoyant performance. If she was never a great actress she was always a spirited screen presence and she is attractive, even if she was twenty-one at the time, rather than seventeen.

This is a weird one. It's an older man/very young woman kind of story but it's not played that way until the very end. When they finally get around to it it's handled well but only too briefly. During the whole film you can't but notice the really obvious age difference. Dick Powell was 50 and Debbie Reynolds 22. He was old enough to be her father. He was old enough to be Anne Francis' father who was 26 at the time. The story is actually pretty good. The downside is that it's really just a comedy but occasionally it takes itself too seriously.The cast was excellent. It was great to see Glenda Farrell in a more mature part. I love her brassy style. Dick Powell was pretty good too in, as someone else noted, his last film. Red Skelton was a surprise. He pops up for the blink of an eye and then disappears. Anne Francis was a knockout, as always. She dominated every scene and some of her lines had real zing. Thanks to TCM for running her out of circulation movies. The difference with Debbie Reynolds couldn't be more pronounced at all levels but I guess that was the point.Then there's the dream sequence, one of the coolest fantasy segments I've seen in a long time. Francis appears as a spider woman, spinning her web around Powell while the child-woman, Reynolds, attempts to keep that from happening. Again, the difference between them couldn't be more pronounced. The tall, curvaceous Francis was like a cool drink on a hot summer day. Reynolds was no match. She couldn't hope to compete but gave it a good try anyway. Too spunky for my taste.Bottom line, it's worth watching for the actors more than anything else. You shouldn't take the story too seriously and the lines sometimes get in the way when they're just plain silly. But hey, Anne Francis is in it, that alone is worth a look.

SUSAN SLEPT HERE is a cute comedy about a Hollywood scriptwriter Mark Christopher(Dick Powell), a former Oscar winner, having trouble scripting another smash. His hardworking typist Maude(Glenda Farrell)is about to her wits end as well. Christopher has had an idea of writing a script about juvenile delinquency and on Christmas Eve he is given custody of a spunky 18 year old troubled teen off the street...Susan Landis(Debby Reynolds). This is really not appreciated by Mark's gofer Virgil(Alvy Moore)and his fiancé Isabella(Anne Francis)is in a slow boil with the lid ready blow. The situation is all quit innocent until it seems Mark decides to marry the young girl to keep her out of jail. Now he really has material for a new script. Also in the cast: Horace McMahon, Herb Vigran, Les Tremayne and Maidie Norman.

Susan Slept Here turned out to be Dick Powell's swan song as a performer on the big screen. Of course he directed some more films and appeared frequently on television until he died. It's a pity he didn't go out with his performance in The Bad and the Beautiful.Frank Tashlin has done so many better films, I'm still not sure whatever possessed him to do this one. The premise is absolutely laughable. Dick Powell is a screenwriter who's looking to do more serious stuff than the fluff he's been writing. He had an idea for a film on juvenile delinquency so two friendly cops in Herb Vigran and Horace McMahon deposit 17 year old Debbie Reynolds on his doorstep. She's not a really bad kid and they don't want to put her in the system. So they give her to Dick Powell at Christmas time.I mean is there anyone out there who doesn't see a problem? The term jailbait comes immediately to mind. Additionally Powell has a girlfriend, the young and sexy Anne Francis. Why Debbie Reynolds is any competition here is beyond me.Susan Slept Here got one Oscar nomination. The song Hold My Hand, sung by Don Cornell in the background, was nominated for best song, but lost to Secret Love. Powell and Reynolds do have some funny moments together and Alvy Moore as Powell's factotum and Les Tremayne as his lawyer also get a few laughs. But it's not enough.