Perfect cast and a good story

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Pleasant, if somewhat disappointing, romantic comedy written by Preston Sturges and directed by William Wyler. Both men did much better work than this. That isn't to say this is bad, because no movie with this level of talent involved could ever be bad. It's just not as good as one would hope. For starters, it's not very funny. I watched it with a friend and fellow classic film fan and she called it "screwball comedy, light on the comedy." That seems about right. It's certainly a wacky enough movie with a plot you would expect from Sturges -- naive young woman fresh out of an orphanage tries to help a struggling lawyer and winds up falling for him while another old guy tries to get in her pants.Margaret Sullavan stars as the young woman and she's easy to like and root for, although her character's childlike naiveté begins to oog you out near the end when you see her break down in tears over the whole mess she started, and you suddenly realize this movie's plot is basically a love story between a minor and a guy in his 40s. But it's best not to look at these things through a modern lens if one can help it. Anyway, Sullavan does fine, as does Herbert Marshall as the lawyer. The two scene stealers, though, are Frank Morgan and Reginald Denny. Morgan has a funny line about a wizard that might give you a chuckle, foreshadowing his most famous role four years later. The best part of the film to me, and the part that most directly screams Sturges, is the movie-within-a-movie that stars Gavin Gordon ("Go."). You have to see it to get why it's so funny but it's really more in line with what I hoped the rest of the movie would be. Instead the movie is a decent romcom with a great cast and a so-so script. It starts out strong but bogs down in the middle and seems to take forever to finish, despite not being particularly long. Worth a look for fans of any of the names involved but keep expectations reasonable.

Fade in: we see an orphanage of kids, all cute and adorable and we see Margaret Sullavan in the middle of them, entertaining them with her animated tall tales, and her acting ever the child herself in telling them, even though she must be seventeen or eighteen. Alan Hale wants an new usherette at his movie house, but doesn't want the fast types who go after the boys, so he and his wife get the idea, maybe a young girl from this orphanage, who's sweet, naive, and doesn't know anything about well, anything, will do. He of course picks out Miss Sullavan. She sets out in the world with one mission: to do good deeds and to do them wholeheartedly and with a smile. With that attitude, she could get in a lot of trouble. But she knows enough to stay away from a wolf who tries to come on to her, after leaving work, played by Cesar Romero; he was too good looking! She takes up with Reginald Owen, who has a "safe and nice" face. Ultimately, for fun, I think, he tells her to go a party, but there she meets Frank Morgan, before he was "The Wizard of Oz," who gets ideas with her around. He wants to do nice things for her, but when she blurts out she's married, to keep him away from her, things get complicated and a little sticky. Enter Herbert Marshall. And, you better watch this feel-good "The Good Fairy" in order to learn two important lessons: Watch out for those good deeds; they may snowball. And, from the smallest things we do, comes the best gifts, sometimes even for ourselves.

Corny movie, dated, but cute, watchable but if you fall asleep don't be surprised. It is amazing how the name Preston Sturges sets up certain expectations for a movie, that it will be fast-paced and crammed with witty, funny dialogue, but alas reputation, like many other aspects of human life, may not be completely consistent with reality. This is a good movie but it is obscure and for good reason. The movie has an excellent cast but the movie's premise is so simplistic that it calls into question whether the audience in 1935 was so naive. This story presents a rather bizarre portrayal of life in an orphanage and the transition from ward to the government to independent woman. Also, the transplantation of Hollywoodish scenery and dialogue onto a story originally set in Hungary is a bit of a stretch but nevertheless it's a good movie. Herbert Marshall, Frank Morgan and Reginald Owen give excellent performances, which is further evidence that the quality of acting was far superior than what it is today, which isn't surprising given Hollywood's obsession for special effects with its firm reliance on the computer to rescue movies from total oblivion.

This is a delightful comedy written by Preston Sturgis.Not as complex as Sullivan's Travels but very satisfying and starring a different Sullavan(Margaret). The most fascinating aspect for me,though,had nothing to do with the charming story.The character of Konrad (Sullavan's benefactor)is played by Frank Morgan who was cast a few years later as the wizard in The Wizard of Oz.When he meets Luisa Ginglebusher ,he is overcome with emotion and tries to play child's games with her exclaiming that he is a wizard and can magically grant her any wish.This was a popular movie in 1935 and surely when The Wizard of Oz began casting they must have immediately thought of Frank Morgan.His character is much the same in both films; as the powerful but foolishly inept industrialist in The Good Fairy and the impostor, all powerful wizard in The Wizard of Oz.