''Slightly Dangerous'' is a 1943 American
romantic comedy
Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a sub-genre of comedy and Romance novel, romance fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount all obstacles. Ro ...
film starring
Lana Turner
Julia Jean "Lana" Turner ( ; February 8, 1921June 29, 1995) was an American actress. Over a career spanning nearly five decades, she achieved fame as both a pin-up model and a film actress, as well as for her highly publicized personal life. ...
and
Robert Young. The screenplay concerns a bored young woman in a dead-end job who runs away to New York City and ends up impersonating the long-lost daughter of a millionaire. The film was directed by
Wesley Ruggles
Wesley Ruggles (June 11, 1889 – January 8, 1972) was an American film director.
Life and work
He was born in Los Angeles, California, younger brother of actor Charlie Ruggles. He began his career in 1915 as an actor, appearing in a doz ...
and written by
Charles Lederer and George Oppenheimer from a story by Aileen Hamilton. According to
Turner Classic Movies
Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie channel, movie-oriented pay television, pay-TV television network, network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcas ...
film historian
Robert Osborne
Robert Jolin Osborne (; May 3, 1932 – March 6, 2017) was an American film historian, author, actor and the primary television host for the premium cable channel Turner Classic Movies (TCM) for over twenty years. Prior to hosting at TCM, Os ...
, one sequence early in the film – in which Lana Turner's character does her job at the soda fountain while blindfolded – was actually directed by an uncredited
Buster Keaton
Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton (October 4, 1895 – February 1, 1966) was an American actor, comedian and filmmaker. He is best known for his silent films during the 1920s, in which he performed physical comedy and inventive stunts. He frequently ...
.
Plot
Peggy is 21 and bored. She has just been awarded a certificate for starting work on time for 1000 days. She decides that she needs a change so she leaves a note, which is taken to be suicidal, and heads for New York where she gets a make over. A new outfit, a new look and an freak accident gets her in the paper as a amnesia victim, just because she does not want to be Peggy Evans any more. The paper thinks she may be an heiress so she searches for a few clues from back issues of the paper and finds that Carol Burden was never found. Cornelius Burden, however, has sent dozens of frauds to jail already and she must trick him and Baba to keep out of jail. Next, she must stop her old manager, Bob Stuart, from spilling the beans about her.
Cast
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Lana Turner
Julia Jean "Lana" Turner ( ; February 8, 1921June 29, 1995) was an American actress. Over a career spanning nearly five decades, she achieved fame as both a pin-up model and a film actress, as well as for her highly publicized personal life. ...
as Peggy Evans / "Carol Burden"
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Robert Young as Bob Stuart
*
Walter Brennan
Walter Andrew Brennan (July 25, 1894 – September 21, 1974) was an American actor and singer. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for ''Come and Get It (1936 film), Come and Get It'' (1936), ''Kentucky (film), Kentucky'' (19 ...
as Cornelius Burden
* Dame
May Whitty as Baba
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Eugene Pallette
Eugene William Pallette (July 8, 1889 – September 3, 1954) was an American actor who worked in both the silent and sound eras, performing in more than 240 productions between 1913 and 1946.
After an early career as a slender leading man, ...
as Durstin
*
Alan Mowbray
Alan Mowbray MM (born Alfred Ernest Allen; 18 August 1896 – 25 March 1969) was an English stage and film actor who found success in Hollywood.
Early life
Mowbray was born in London, England. He served with distinction in the British Army ...
as an English gentleman
*
Florence Bates as Mrs. Amanda Roanoke-Brooke
*
Howard Freeman as Mr. Quill
*
Millard Mitchell as Baldwin
*
Ward Bond
Wardell Edwin Bond (April 9, 1903 – November 5, 1960) was an American character actor who appeared in more than 200 films and starred in the NBC television series ''Wagon Train'' from 1957 to 1960. Among his best-remembered roles are Bert th ...
as Jimmy
*
Pamela Blake as Mitzi
*
Ray Collins as Snodgrass
*
Gordon Richards as Garrett, the Butler
*
Emory Parnell
Emory Parnell (December 29, 1892 – June 22, 1979) was an American vaudeville performer and actor who appeared in over 250 films in his 36-year career.
Early years
Parnell was born in St. Paul, Minnesota. He spent eight months in the Arct ...
as Policeman
*
Robert Blake as Boy on Porch (uncredited)
Box office
According to MGM records the film earned $1,579,000 in the US and Canada and $672,000 elsewhere resulting in a profit of $4,776,000.
"Top Grossers of the Season", ''Variety'', 5 January 1944 p 54
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References
External links
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{{Charles Lederer
1943 films
American black-and-white films
Films directed by Wesley Ruggles
1943 romantic comedy films
American romantic comedy films
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films
Films with screenplays by Charles Lederer
Films scored by Bronisław Kaper
1940s English-language films
1940s American films
English-language romantic comedy films