Take Her, She's Mine

Starring: James Stewart, Sandra Dee, Audrey Meadows, Robert Morley, Philippe Forquet, John McGiver, Bob Denver, Cynthia Pepper, Charla Doherty, James Brolin (uncredited)
Directed by: Henry Koster
Rating: Approved
Genre: Comedy
1963

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A father's (James Stewart) attempt to overprotect his daughter (Sandra Dee) continually backfires, creating several scandals.

Review:

Tim: I love James Stewart, but this is one of his lesser comedies. Take Her, She's Mine is interesting, though. I feel like some movies you watch and it's hard to come up with something to talk about. That's not the case here (although that's not always a positive thing).

This movie is based on a 1961 Broadway play, written by Henry and Phoebe Ephron. They actually wrote the play about their then 22 year-old daughter, Nora Ephron. That is crazy to me- Nora would obviously go on to be a pretty amazing filmmaker. However, it's also a little weird that her parents wrote a play about her budding sexuality and the affects it had on them. The movie is pretty tame by today's standards, but might have been a bit risque back in 1963. The movie hasn't aged very well- in the first ten minutes, there's a few instances of sexual harassment that are played for laughs. Not a good look and definitely uncomfortable. A lot of the movie's laughs center around this young girl being "a dish" and the situations that involves her (and her father) in. This isn't the best premise for a movie, but again, the 1960s.

There's actually some clever storytelling approaches used. I enjoyed how the movie started out at an inquest about James Stewart's character. He seems sober-minded and intelligent, so it's a bit surprising when they pull out newspaper clippings of various scandals he's involved in. He launches into his tale, which takes up the majority of the movie, explaining in a roundabout way how he landed into such hot water multiple times. It's a little strange that they all involve him being overprotective about his daughter's chastity and he's telling this to a room full of people, but whatever. It was actually entertaining to start at the end and then trace back how he ended up getting arrested for protesting "dirty" books, being caught in an underworld enterprise, and leaping off a yacht with barely any clothing. It offered an entertaining twist to the story. I also really enjoyed the humorous in-movie joke of James Stewart's character continually being mistaken for James Stewart. That was more meta than I expected for a 1963 film and it was entertaining.

As far as Stewart goes, he's always good. He's one of my all-time favorite actors. He's delivered some of the best performances in movie history, and yet, he can be effective even in ineffective movies like this one. It's obvious he is the star in this film and your eye is drawn to what he does. I obviously wish the movie was as good as his performance, but there's something endearing about him being so effective in a movie that isn't quite good enough. It was fun seeing Sandra Dee here, too. This is the first movie of hers I've ever seen. I thought she did a good job. At first it seems like a bit of a lower role for her- there's the jokes about her being a "dish" and several bathing suit scenes, but she was also afforded several opportunities to actually act and she did well in those. She definitely has some talent and it was fun to see her in this film. I enjoyed her performance. The supporting cast was fine, but had few standouts. Audrey Meadows gave a fairly bland performance. Charla Doherty was solid, but didn't get a whole lot to do. John McGiver was good in his small role. Robert Morley was enjoyable in his small supporting role, too. As a whole, the cast was good, but they're definitely led by Stewart and Dee.

Take Her, She's Mine is a lightweight comedy. It has some nice moments, but isn't an especially memorable film. Some of the jokes haven't aged well. And yet, this film does have some nice moments. It's cute, at times. I wouldn't heartily recommend this film, but I'm also glad I watched it.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating- 6.5



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