Appointment for Love

Playwright Charles Boyer woos and wins doctor Margaret Sullavan. Once they are wed, they run into matrimonial problems because the good doctor believes they can and should lead their lives separately: not just their professional lives, but separate apartments.

It's directed ably by William Seiter, with Eugene Pallette, Rita Johnson, Cecil Kellaway, and longtime Seiter collaborator Reginald Denny as the other man. Comic situations arise naturally out of the basic thesis. The problem is that the characters don't work well within their assumptions; Miss Sullavan's idea of marriage is a whim of iron that admits of no imperfection on her part, which makes this screwball comedy not really appealing. Instead of being caught up in the silliness of it all, I was annoyed.

In many ways, it can be compared to the next year's Woman of the Year. In that movie, Katharine Hepburn is so caught up in her life that she has no time for the responsibilities she has assumed, leading to a denouement that I consider ill-conceived. Here, Miss Sullavan is a nitwit.