No Leave, No Love

1946 film by Charles Martin
  • Laszio Kardos
  • Charles Martin
Produced byJoe PasternakStarring
  • Van Johnson
  • Keenan Wynn
  • Pat Kirkwood
Cinematography
  • Harold Rosson
  • Robert Surtees
Edited byConrad A. NervigMusic byGeorge Stoll
Production
company
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Distributed byLoew's Inc.
Release date
  • October 3, 1946 (1946-10-03)
Running time
119 minutesCountryUnited StatesLanguageEnglishBudget$1,778,000[1]Box office$3,785,000[1]

No Leave, No Love is a 1946 American musical comedy film directed by Charles Martin and starring Van Johnson, Keenan Wynn and Pat Kirkwood.[2][3]

Plot

Mike, a Marine and recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor, returns with his pal Slinky from fighting in the Pacific during World War II. Mike expects to marry his hometown sweetheart; his mother wants to tell him in person that she has married someone else. Most of the film involves the efforts of Susan, a popular radio personality, to keep him from finding out or going home until his mother makes it to New York from Indiana. Susan and Mike fall in love; misunderstandings ensue. The shenanigans of the implausibly unpleasant and larcenous Slinky fill out the action, and the musical element is provided by several appearances of then-famous performers in nightclubs and on Susan’s radio show. The story is bookended by Mike’s arrival in the waiting room of a maternity ward and the birth of his and Susan’s son. Slinky gets the last word when Rosalind announces that she is pregnant.

Cast

  • Van Johnson as Sergeant Michael Hanlon
  • Keenan Wynn as Slinky Edwards
  • Pat Kirkwood as Susan Malby Duncan
  • Edward Arnold as Hobart Canford 'Popsie' Stiles
  • Leon Ames as Colonel R.G. Elliott
  • Marie Wilson as Rosalind
  • Marina Koshetz as Countess Elena Marina Strogoff
  • Selena Royle as Mrs Hanlon
  • Wilson Wood as Mr Crawley
  • Vince Barnett as Ben
  • Guy Lombardo and his Orchestra as Themselves
  • Frank Sugar Chile Robinson as The boy on the piano
  • Lillian Yarbo as Maid (uncredited)

Reception

The film earned $2,891,000 in the US and Canada and $894,000 elsewhere resulting in a profit of $629,000.[1][4]

Critical response

Bosley Crowther of The New York Times writes in his review: "No Leave, No Love starts rambling along about the second reel, when Van Johnson, as the marine hero, turns things over to his pal, Keenan Wynn. And from there on it is mainly a matter of how comical Mr. Wynn can be with little more helpful material than his sense of humor and a big cigar. It must be said to Mr. Wynn's credit—and to the credit of his director, perhaps—that he does pull some fairly funny business in a strictly low-comedy vein, but it is all rather forced and capricious. And it, too, has its saturation points.[5]

References

  1. ^ a b c The Eddie Mannix Ledger, Los Angeles: Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study.
  2. ^ "No Leave, No Love". Turner Classic Movies. Atlanta: Turner Broadcasting System (Time Warner). Retrieved September 14, 2016.
  3. ^ BFI | Film & TV Database | NO LEAVE, NO LOVE (1946)
  4. ^ "Top Grossers of 1947", Variety, 7 January 1948 p 63
  5. ^ Crowther, Bosley (October 18, 1946). "'No Leave, No Love,' With Van Johnson, Keenan Wynn and Pat Kirkwood, Opens at Capitol". The New York Times. New York City. Retrieved September 14, 2016.