This is the best of Flynn's comedies. He's a good light comedian but a light one. He'd make the top 10 in that regard in Hollywood at the time and maybe the top 5 but it wasn't what he was best at. Here he's an artist who paints Alberto Vargas-like pin-up girls who has been very popular during the war. He's married to the gorgeous Eleanor Parker and has a pretty little girl, (Patti Brady) who adores him but things haven't worked out, largely due to the amount of time he spends with his models and they are separated. It's Patti's fondest hope to get her parents back together and, underneath the surface of their misunderstandings, it's obvious they want the same thing.
There are several sub-plots that all come together at the end. Patti has responded to a plea to write to soldiers posted around the world and become a pen pal with a marine played by Forrest Tucker. But she's sent him a picture of her mother painted by her father and when Tucker shows up, he thinks Eleanor is his pen pal. Meanwhile Eleanor is planning on marrying her stuff-shirt lawyer, played by Donald Woods. Flynn's latest model, played by Peggy Knudsen, (Eddie Mars' hard-boiled girlfriend in 'The Big Sleep'), has her eye on Flynn and keeps showing up at the wrong time, as does Flynn's best friend, played by Tom D'Andrea and C. A. "Cuddles" Sakall as a comic waiter and Barry Fitzgerald's more subtle brother, Arthur Shields, as a friendly policeman.
It all gets straightened out in the end and the fantasy of every child from a broken home, that Mommy and Daddy will get back together, comes to pass, (sorry for the spoiler). The comedy is played smoothly and not overdone, except perhaps in Wood's case, (he seems to be imitating Cary Grant from 'Bringing Up Baby'). Brady isn't excessively cute. She seemed to have potential as an actress but ended her career a few years later at age 14. Hattie McDaniel plays a member of the household but doesn't wear a maid's costume. I wondered about the significance of that. Even, Sakall, who I normally find hard to take, only does just enough to get the laugh. Knudsen has an icy beauty but a persona to match, which limited her to B movies and TV episodes after a good start. Parker a much under-rated actress, proves herself a good 'reactor' to the comic turns of others and of the script. Humphrey Bogart does a voice-over when Flynn tries to imitate -and spoof- his tough guy image, which is interesting as Bogart reportedly loathed Flynn. But if you are under contract to Jack Warner and he asks you to do something, you do it.
It's a mild amusement at best but goes down smoothly.
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