It Happened to Jane

Many of Doris Day movies are on my list of movies to routinely revisit when I want to smile and laugh and feel good after watching. This one I refer to as Doris Days "Pollyanna" movie ... set in the seemingly idyllic past of times long gone.If you like musicals like Carousel, the Sound of Music, The Music Man, or movies like Pollyanna, Disney's Swiss Family Robinson, That Darn Cat,The Ugly Dachshund, or Little Women and Anne of Green Gables movies/books ... then you're sure to enjoy spending and hour or so with Doris ... who is gone but certainly not forgotten.

We rented this when mom was visiting because she has seen most the other Doris Days. She hadn't even heard of this one so we gave it a try. It's cute, albeit unrealistic.

Columbia's spring, 1959 release, "It Happened to Jane" should have been a box-office smash. It certainly had all the makings of a hit.Starring Doris Day and Jack Lemmon, two of the screen's most gifted comic performers, featuring a great supporting cast and set amidst some of the most beautiful scenery seen up to that date in wide-screen, it nevertheless opened and closed rather quickly.Perhaps it was the title or the general lack of enthusiasm the studio seemed to have for the film, but it nevertheless provided more than ample entertainment for audiences who did venture into the theatres where it played and now, beautifully presented on DVD (It was never, oddly enough, given a release on video), it should more than provide ample pleasures for those who purchase or rent this delightful romp.In short it is the story of a widow, with two children, who raises lobsters in a small Maine town who takes on a mighty railroad whose indifference had caused her to lose a shipment. She is assisted in her battle by smalltown lawyer/boyfriend, Jack Lemmon. This being Hollywood, the outcome may seem rather predictable but getting there is such fun that you can't help but smile throughout and from time to time let out a major guffaw.The film was released about 6 months before Doris Day began her many year reign as the top box-office star in the world. The film that made that possible was "Pillow Talk". She was Oscar-nominated for her turn in that film but she is equally as good as Janie Osgood in this picture.She beautifully epitomizes the strong willed, determined New England stock she plays and the audience is rooting for her from the first frame. It is a very skilled performance utilizing the natural empathy audiences feel for her and allowing her to display her one of a kind comic timing coupled with the "heart" comedy that she does better than anyone else. Miss Day and Lemmon are great together and one can only wish they'd had another chance to work together since they are naturals.Lemmon does the sometimes neurotic, high-strung portrayal that he did skillfully for decades but it has rarely been funnier and more apt.Ernie Kovacs has the role of his lifetime as railroad mogul, Harry Foster Malone. He chews the scenery with such skill and his scenes with Day and Lemmon are memorable. You dislike his character but also enjoy the relish with which the actor plays it.Great supporting performances are contributed by Steve Forrest, Parker Fennelly, who briefly tried to fill Percy Kilbride's shoes in a "Kettle" comedy at Universal, and Mary Wickes, making her fourth big screen appearance opposite Miss Day. (She would appear opposite her one more time, ten years later when she guest-starred on Miss Day's hit CBS television series).Richard Quine, who never achieved major success as a director despite a handful of good films and would forever be known as the man who accidentally shot and paralyzed his one time actress-wife Susan Peters, directs with confidence and capability. As noted by many, there is a Frank Capra-esque quality about the proceedings.Miss Day sings the title tune and another song during the film in her customary way (i.e. one of the screen's best female singers), and there are surprise appearances by several game show performers of the time."It Happened to Jane" may finally gain the reputation it deserves as one of 1959's happiest surprises.

A great feel good old school fun movie. Old movies are just a joy to watch! Brings back good memories!

Lovable actors, lovely town, cute kids, but the very basis of the story is legal nonsense. To secure a judgment of $2,500, Jane (Doris Day) seizes an entire train and the railroad company just wrings its hands helplessly. Nonsense. All they have to do to get their train released is post a bond for $2,500, or deposit that sum in escrow, to guarantee payment of the judgment if they lose on appeal, and they immediately get their train back. And so collapses the whole plot of the film.As for wholesomeness, oh yes, this film is wholesome; it is impossible to believe that the flouncy, bouncy Jane is a widow, that is, that she was once married and has 2 children. I am reminded of the Oscar Levant remark that he knew Doris Day before she was a virgin – a remark, by the way, that Day hated, but it really fit many of the roles she played, like the role of Jane in this movie; and she could have put paid to that image if she had accepted the role of Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate (she declined precisely on the ground that it would ruin her image).It’s not a terrible way to spend an evening, especially if you’re around 7 years old, but we were never really that innocent – and railroad companies really had better lawyers.

IT HAPPENED TO JANE was up until this DVD release something of a `lost classic', having never been released on video and appearing only rarely on TV and cable. Doris Day stars in another domestic comedy which suits her wholesome girl-next-door persona to a tee.She plays Jane Osgood, a young widow in Cape Anne, Maine, who runs a lobster farming business. When one of her shipments returns with the lobsters dead inside, Jane discovers that it was the fault of the railroad company. She turns to her old friend George Denham (Jack Lemmon) a young lawyer, and together they take on the tyrannical head of the railways Harry Foster Malone (Ernie Kovacs). It's a cute, often very funny comedy. Doris Day and Jack Lemmon are fresh and appealing in the lead roles, and Day gets 2 numbers ("Be Prepared" and the Title Song). The movie also features Mary Wickes, Steve Forrest and Jayne Meadows. Based on a story by Max Wilk and Norman Katkov.The DVD picture looks great, in a colourful anamorphic print. Extras consist of trailers for other Columbia classic movie titles.

Doris Day was a talent...actress, singer... BUT this movie is especially interesting because I live in Maine and know the area featured quite well. It is interesting how history is told from particular perspectives... but always from the tone of David defeating Goliath... in these times.. we realize that that was only a part of the story... what about the Indigenous peoples before "the Janes?".... it is interesting that colonizers think life begins with them...and it is deadly... when you look beneath the surface messages of this film to recall the massacres that made towns like "Cape Ann" possible..it isn't so sweet a film. It is sad...and it is only a small piece of a very long history told for Maine.

You can't go wrong with this family friendly and very entertaining rom-com. Doris Day and Jack Lemmon make the perfect on-screen couple, as Day plays the part of a single mother Jane, who battles against Harry Foster Malone, an arrogant owner of a train company, who jeopardises Jane's lobster business, by cost cutting the rail service. Lemmon plays the part of Jane's loyal friend and lawyer, George, who is in love with Jane from the outset. This film, whilst not being that well know, is an excellently scripted and light-hearted rom-com, suitable for all.

Can't go wrong with these actors. Even bad ones are better than modern films and always have the timing and delivery that most certainly you cannot get at all now.

Great movie with two of my favourite stars. Good condition and arrived promptly. No worries AS YET!

Good relaxing old fashioned film, no obvious sex, no bad language no violence and some humour.

Love the stars of the film - but, oh dear