Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

Go in cold, and you're likely to emerge with your blood boiling. This has to be seen to be believed.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

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.

Director: MITCHELL LEISEN. Screenplay: James Edward Grant, Albert McCleery. Story: James Edward Grant. Photography: Ted Tetzlaff. Film editor: Eda Warren. Song: "I Find Love" (Dietrich) by Jack King and Gordon Clifford. Dance director: Douglas Dean. Music composed by W. Franke Harling, directed by Morris Stoloff. Supervising art director: Lionel Banks. Art director: Rudolph Sternad. Gowns for Miss Dietrich: Irene. Hats for Miss Dietrich: John Frederics. Jewels: Paul Flato. Production assistant: Francisco Alonso. Sound recording: Lodge Cunningham. Western Electric Sound System. Producer: Mitchell Leisen. A Mitchell Leisen Production. Executive producer: Charles K. Feldman.Copyright 26 January 1942 by Columbia Pictures Corp. A Charles K. Feldman Group Production. New York opening at the Capitol: 23 April 1942. U.S. release: 12 February 1942. Australian release: 11 February 1943 (sic). 9 reels. 8,235 feet. 91 minutes.SYNOPSIS: Elizabeth Madden (Marlene Dietrich), a celebrated musical comedy star, finds an abandoned baby and declares to her associates that she will raise the child. To show how much this lady knows about children, Elizabeth thinks the child is a girl, when it is actually a boy. The first time the baby cries, she thinks "she" is dying and begins calling doctors. She nearly drives her secretary Buddy (Aline MacMahon) and her business manager Kenneth Hanline (Stanley Ridges) crazy before they get in touch with Dr. Corey McBain (Fred MacMurray), a pediatrician with a yen to do research on pneumonia.COMMENT: Columbia is here attempting to imitate a Paramount picture — and succeeding mightily so far as sets, costumes and lighting go, but failing dismally as to script and direction. That last is really strange since Paramount alumnus Mitchell Leisen (together with his frequent Paramount photographer) is at the helm, but here in a strange studio, surrounded by unfamiliar craftsmen and technicians, his touch is heavy rather than light, emphatic instead of casual- seeming, pedestrian in place of imaginative. Of course the script is second-rate too, its witty lines grafted on to pasteboard and uninteresting (and often unsympathetic) characters, its one-line plot rapidly exhausted, thus forcing an unwelcome change of tone from heavy farce to tediously predictable romance to straight- out medical melodrama.Miss Dietrich looks the part but fails to convey the heart of gold the script so assiduously describes. She seems merely batty. In an even more impossible role, MacMurray, fine actor that he is, pulls out every stop to win audience support — and actually manages to wring a few good laughs out of the script through sheer charm and personality.A pity the momentum of the extremely witty opening credits is not maintained. Ten out of ten for the titles, boys, but alas the picture then goes steadily down the gurgler.OTHER VIEWS: A tedious domestic comedy that effectively wastes the talents of all concerned. It's sad to see Miss Dietrich being squandered in a piece of piffle like this, though she does have one musical number — fortunately repeated twice! But as for the rest of the film, it is almost unendurable to sit through it once. Whatever promise the script had, it soon takes a very predictable course with all the tediously familiar marital misunderstandings and melodramatic medical crises. The characters are as one-dimensional as the dialogue is witless and the direction has all the sparkle of a long-opened bottle of lemonade. The players do valiantly but the odds are stacked ever higher and higher against them. The film is well mounted too, with some very attractive sets and costumes, soft, flattering photography and a few of our favorite character players like Robert Emmett Keane (the hotel manager), Chas Halton (the hotel physician), Eddie Acuff (Patrolman Murphy) flitting around. But alas the film is a Humpty Dumpty which no amount of skillful dressing or deft editing could put together in an entertainingly acceptable form. — JHR writing as George Addison.Leisen is a set designer as much as a director. He probably spent so much time giving this picture the Paramount look, he skimped on pacing and performance. That's a pity, because in spacious sets, ritzy, sophisticated costumes and ensembles, and above all in that dazzlingly white, pin-point sharp yet glossily attractive cinematography, this is the best imitation Paramount picture I've ever seen. — JHR writing as Charles Freeman.

This is one of those escapist, nonsensical, utterly unrealistic and yes, downright silly movies from a time when the world was anxious. Europe was under Nazi occupation and the US was contemplating its own role in the conflict. Hollywood had become very good at giving Americans just this kind of comic relief. So why should anyone bother with it? Because despite all the silliness the four leads manage to pull it off with great aplomb. Marlene Dietrich is just as exotic and glamorous as she was in 'The Blue Angel' if not more so. She was forty and a show-stopper without compare. How could Fred MacMurray help himself but fall for her. His role here is an early version of his absent-minded professor. And the supporting leads, Aline MacMahon and Stanley Ridges, are equally good and fun to watch. So sit back and enjoy the show!

Whatever faults THE LADY IS WILLING has can be traced immediately to the script. Despite this, Mitchel Leisen's direction guides MARLENE DIETRICH and FRED MacMURRAY through their paces and gets some very good performances from both of them. Marlene, in particular, is surprisingly effective playing a naive, bossy, and very "dumb" Broadway actress who casually walks off with a baby simply because it's cute and she can afford to take care of it.Complications arise, of course, when it's discovered that she's the woman in the screwy hat who took the child away from the scene of an accident. MacMurray is the handsome doctor she calls when she needs help in supervising the child and from then on the story veers between comedy, romance and even drama toward the end.Dietrich is lovingly photographed, perfectly lit by an astute cameraman no matter what the situation is and glamorously gowned throughout. MacMurray is an old hand at screwball comedy and is thoroughly adept at handling his bumbling chores with his usual expertise.A couple of good-natured twins were used for all of the baby's scenes and Dietrich seems to really care about how she interacts with the infant. It's an unusual role for her and she demonstrates an ability to toss off screwball dialog with the best of them.This sort of fluff is given above average handling by Leisen and his stars, although the material itself is decidedly below par screwball comedy that turns maudlin toward the end.

The Lady is Willing is a disappointing film. It stars Marlene Dietrich as an actress who finds an abandoned baby and decides to take him home. She soon discovers, however, that she can't adopt the baby because she's not married. So she enters into a marriage of convenience with baby doctor Fred MacMurray. Predictable complications then ensue, but this is a comedy without any big laughs. But, the stars are watchable and quite good, considering the material. Dietrich, surprisingly, had a flair for light comedy. All in all, a 4 out of 10.