Take Her, She’s Mine ** (1963, James Stewart, Sandra Dee) – Classic Movie Review 11,729

James Stewart is the main asset of the 1963 comical movie Take Her, She’s Mine.

Director Henry Koster’s 1963 20th Century Fox American comedy film Take Her, She’s Mine is based on the 1961 Broadway comedy by Henry Ephron and Phoebe Ephron, and stars James Stewart and Sandra Dee.

Stewart plays old-fashioned Los Angeles attorney Frank Michaelson, who tries to protect his teenage daughter Mollie (Dee) from men and politics in this strained, sentimental, soppy comedy. This involves him going to Paris to check on her after she leaves home to go to college and study art abroad in Paris, from where she writes home about her beatnik friends and activist beliefs.

Take Her, She’s Mine is a dreary, obvious and not at all comical movie and a poor choice for Stewart, who is its only real asset and, even so, he is not at his best. There is no shortage of talent involved. The screenplay is by Nunnally Johnson, taken from Phoebe Ephron and Henry Ephron’s Broadway play, based on letters their daughter Nora (the writer/ director) wrote to them from university. Robert Morley and John McGiver are also assets as Mr Pope-Jones and Hector G Ivor, and that is Bob Denver as coffeehouse singer.

The character of Mollie, played by Sandra Dee, is based on the then 22-year-old Nora Ephron. This role was played by Elizabeth Ashley on Broadway and performance won her a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play. Nevertheless, she still did not get to film the role, yet it served as the launching pad for her career anyway. Art Carney played the father.

Take Her, She’s Mine features an early score by prolific composer Jerry Goldsmith.

Henry and Phoebe Ephron wrote the play script in six weeks and sent it to their agent. They chose Hal Prince to produce it.

Film rights were bought by 20th Century Fox, which was then taken over by Darryl F  Zanuck, who told Nunnally Johnson to rewrite his script with the last act set in Paris for international appeal. Later Johnson called it ‘a very lousy third act, all taken on the back lot and the French didn’t understand that any more than the Americans either, by that time. But Zanuck insisted on it.’

Ah well, it earned $5 million, which seems good on a budget of $2,435,000. But it needed to earn $6,100,000 in film rentals to break even so it recorded a loss.

The cast are James Stewart as Frank Michaelson, Sandra Dee as Mollie Michaelson, Audrey Meadows as Anne Michaelson, Robert Morley as Mr Pope-Jones, John McGiver as Hector G Ivor, Bob Denver as coffeehouse singer, Philippe Forquet as Henri Bonnet, Monica Moran as Linda Lehman, Cynthia Pepper as Adele, Jenny Maxwell as Sarah, Charla Doherty as Liz Michaelson, Maurice Marsac as M Bonnet, Marcel Hillaire as Policeman, Irene Tsu as Miss Wu, Charles Robinson as Stanley, Janine Grandel and James Brolin.

 © Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,729

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