The Feminine Touch (1941)

Don Ameche is a college professor of psychology who's told to help pass a flunking student, so he can play Saturday's game. This only adds to his frustration of bored, inattentive students, and he quits. He has written a book about jealousy, which a publishing company has shown interest in publishing it. He and wife Rosalind Russell go off to New York to meet the publisher. But, Roz is a human female wife, who wants her husband to act alive and jealous, and Don is too reasonable to be reduced to such feelings, which have no scientific basis for them. The publisher Van Heflin takes a liking to Roz, but his secretary Kay Francis has been pining for him all this time. Such is the zany premise in this feel-good comedy. As usual, Roz is at her best with quick lines and her short temper, demanding Don do something about Van. And, a misunderstanding on a bus gets Don in jail. Kay Francis is great, in this escape from her usual fare of melodramas in which she is suffering from shame and scandal and doing and dying for love of her man. Van Heflin is a hoot as a neurotic, who won't let Roz out of his sight and who only has one thing on his mind. The cast winds up on an island, where things get really hysterical. If you want to discover a new screwball comedy, after seeing all of Cary Grant's, then discover The Feminine Touch and see what trouble it gets you.