John Loves Mary is a 1949 Romantic Comedy film directed by David Butler, starring Ronald Reagan and Patricia Neal in her film debut.
John Lawrence (Reagan) has finally returned home from the war in Europe. His fiancée, Mary McKinley (Neal), has waited longingly for him the whole time and greets him with open-armed enthusiasm. They plan to pick up right where they left off and get married.
There's a bit of a problem, however, which John neglects to tell Mary about. His best friend from the war, Fred Taylor (Jack Carson), had a girl in London, a dancer named Lilly (Virginia Field). They believed her to have been killed during the Blitz, but shortly before it was time for him to come home, John discovered Lilly alive and well and still dancing in London. John decided to reunite the lovers, but he had only one way to get Lilly through immigration and into the United States: marry her himself. So he did, marrying Lilly in England, taking her to the states, and planning to fix her up with Fred, whereupon Fred and Lilly can go to Reno and she can get a quickie divorce.
This plan runs into two roadblocks. John gets back home thrilled to reunite Fred with his girlfriend, only to discover that Fred is married with a baby due to be born any day. The second problem is that Mary, unwilling to wait any longer after four years have passed, has her heart set on getting married immediately. Things are further complicated when Mary's parents, Senator James McKinley (Edward Arnold) and his wife Phyllis (Katharine Alexander), show up unexpectedly.
Adapted from Norman Krasna's 1947 stage play of the same name.
Tropes:
- Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder: Discussed Trope. Mary is certain that John must have had a girl in Europe and pushes him for details. He insists that no, he was faithful to her for four years.
- The Alcoholic: Lt. Victor O'Leary, John and Fred's old CO who is now a theater usher. After John offers him a drink while enlisting him in the scheme, Victor takes the bottle with him. Later he is drunk at his work, getting into a fight at the theater, and he is still drunk when he comes back to Senator McKinley's hotel suite and is surprised to find his wife.
- As You Know: A lot of dialogue between Mary and Fred about how Fred saved John's life during the war, picking up a wounded John and carrying him 200 yards through enemy gunfire.
- Blunt "Yes": Senator McKinley expresses reluctance to use his pull in Washington to get John's (fake) orders to Nevada canceled. His wife agrees and says to Mary that surely she isn't asking her father to pull strings for John. Mary says flatly, "Yes I am!"
- Book Ends: In the first scene John is changing from his Army uniform into civilian clothes. His pants are off (revealing modest knee-length underwear) when the Senator comes in, catches his daughter with a half-undressed man, and throws a fit. At the end the same thing happens, but this time Senator McKinley doesn't even notice, turning around and strolling right back out.
- Celebrity Paradox: The Adventures of Don Juan starring Errol Flynn is playing at the local theater. Does Errol Flynn movie Desperate Journey exist in this universe, and if so, did John Laurence wonder why Flynn's co-star looked so much like him?
- Citizenship Marriage: John's Zany Scheme to get Fred and Lilly together entails him marry Lilly himself in order to get her through border control and into the USA.
- Credits Gag: Fred's wife has just had a baby, and Fred brings the infant over. In the closing Video Credits Fred walks out with the baby (clearly not a real baby, just something in blankets). The onscreen credit says "Jack Carson and Junior."
- Divorce in Reno: Discussed at length, as John's whole plan involves a train out to Reno to get a divorce.
- Extremely Short Timespan: Two days.
- Gentlemen Rankers: Despite being a "college man" John was only a sergeant. Inverted with his old CO, Lt. O'Leary, who came home to work as a movie theater usher.
- Hand Gag: Lilly thinks she'll be matched up with Fred again right up to the moment where another person innocently mentions Fred's "wife and baby." She draws two lungfuls of air and is clearly about to start screaming when Fred Hand Gags her and drags her away.
- I Ate WHAT?!: Fred is slamming down caviar like it was ice cream, to Mary's mortification. When he asks her what caviar is and she answers "fish eggs", he flinches in shock and the can flies out of his hand, spilling caviar all over the floor.
- Idiot Ball: Later, after he's in way too deep, John reflects that it was pretty stupid to go off and marry Lilly without contacting Fred and asking him about it.
- Maintain the Lie: John says "I only started with one little lie!", although "got married to someone else" seems like a large lie. Over the course of the film the trope is played straight as he grows more and more frantic, working to conceal his marriage to Lilly, concocting fake Army orders from an impostor so he can go to Reno. Finally he gives up and confesses.
- Overly-Nervous Flop Sweat: A panicked John spends a lot of time sponging off his forehead after finding out that Mary wants to get married right away.Mrs. McKinley: What do you suppose is the matter with this boy? He's still perspiring!
- Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated: It turns out that Lilly was married once before...to Lt. Victor O'Leary, whose mother later told her that he died of double pneumonia. So Lilly is quite surprised and very angry to see Victor in the flesh in New York. (This invalidates John and Lilly's marriage, allowing John and Mary to get married right away after all.)
- Spit Take: Fred's pointed reference about how he met a "Strand theater usher" causes John to realize that Lt. O'Leary the theater usher is who Fred's enlisted to play a part in their scheme to delay John's marriage. John spits the champagne he's drinking all over the place.
- Video Credits: Of all the main players, walking out of the hotel suite, in pairs (except for Jack Carson and the fake baby "Junior").
