''Standing Room Only'' is a 1944 American

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...

directed by

Sidney Lanfield Sidney Lanfield (April 20, 1898 – June 20, 1972) was an American film director known for directing romances and light comedy films and later television programs. The one-time jazz musician and vaudevillian star started his first directing job ...

and starring Fred MacMurray and

Paulette Goddard Paulette Goddard (born Marion Levy; June 3, 1910 – April 23, 1990) was an American actress notable for her film career in the Golden Age of Hollywood. Born in Manhattan and raised in Kansas City, Missouri, Goddard initially began her career ...

Plot

Working on the assembly line at the Todd toy manufacturing company, Jane Rogers makes a mistake and is called before company general manager Lee Stevens, a man she has admired from afar. Lee's secretary is fired, at the request of his sweetheart Alice, daughter of factory owner T. J. Todd. Jane talks her way into the job, pretending to have secretarial skills. Lee is leaving for Washington, D.C., in an effort to save the company from financial ruin. He intends to see government official Glen Ritchie there and propose the Todd factory be used in the war effort. Jane does everything wrong. She cancels their hotel reservation and the whole town is booked solid. She and Lee end up sleeping outdoors. Ritchie isn't able to see Lee two days in a row, so Jane, under orders to get them any kind of room, makes a deal to stay with Ira Cromwell and his wife, but only by becoming their servants. Lee is aghast at the idea but desperate to see Ritchie so forced to stay in town. The accident-prone Jane continues to cause problems, forgetting to cook the turkey for the Cromwells' dinner party. One night their guest turns out to be Ritchie, and to further complicate matters, Todd and daughter Alice turn up, too. Dinner is a fiasco, but Ritchie agrees to give the toy factory a government contract and by now Jane and Lee are in love.

Cast

as Jane * Fred MacMurray as Lee *

Roland Young Roland (; frk, *Hrōþiland; lat-med, Hruodlandus or ''Rotholandus''; it, Orlando or ''Rolando''; died 15 August 778) was a Frankish military leader under Charlemagne who became one of the principal figures in the literary cycle known as the ...

as Cromwell * Edward Arnold as Todd *

Hillary Brooke Hillary Brooke (born Beatrice Sofia Mathilda Peterson; September 8, 1914 – May 25, 1999) was an American film actress. Career A 5′6″ blonde from the Astoria neighborhood of New York City's borough of Queens, Brooke, who was of Swedish an ...

as Alice *

Clarence Kolb Clarence William Kolb (July 31, 1874 – November 25, 1964) was an American vaudeville performer and actor known for his comedy routines that featured a Dutch dialect. Biography Kolb started out as one half of a vaudeville comedy team, Kol ...

as Ritchie *

Marie McDonald Marie McDonald (born Cora Marie Frye, July 6, 1923 – October 21, 1965) was an American singer and actress known as "The Body Beautiful" and later nicknamed "The Body". Early life Born in Burgin, Kentucky, McDonald was the daughter of Evert ...

as Opal *

Veda Ann Borg Veda Ann Borg (January 11, 1915 – August 16, 1973) was an American film and television actress. Early years Born in Boston, Massachusetts, to Gottfried Borg, a Swedish immigrant, and Minna Noble, Borg became a model in 1936 before winni ...

as Peggy

Radio adaptation

''Standing Room Only'' was presented on the October 30th, 1944 episode of ''

Lux Radio Theatre ''Lux Radio Theatre'', sometimes spelled ''Lux Radio Theater'', a classic radio anthology series, was broadcast on the NBC Blue Network (1934–35) (owned by the National Broadcasting Company, later predecessor of American Broadcasting Company ...

'', with Goddard and MacMurray reprising their roles. It was later presented on the November 23, 1952 episode of ''Broadway Playhouse''; the 30-minute adaptation starred Goddard.

References

External links

review of movie
at

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

''Standing Room Only''
at

IMDb IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...

''Standing Room Only''
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TCMDB Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie-oriented pay-TV network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcasting campus in the Midtown business district of Atl ...

1944 films 1944 comedy films American black-and-white films American comedy films Films directed by Sidney Lanfield Films scored by Robert Emmett Dolan Paramount Pictures films 1940s English-language films 1940s American films {{1940s-comedy-film-stub