The Devil and Miss Jones **** (1941, Jean Arthur, Robert Cummings, Charles Coburn, Edmund Gwenn, Spring Byington, S Z Sakall, William Demarest) – Classic Movie Review 10,258

Director Sam Wood’s engaging, funny, charming 1941 vintage comedy The Devil and Miss Jones stars Jean Arthur as Miss Mary Jones, Robert Cummings and Charles Coburn, who is good fun as the tycoon John P Merrick pretending to be a shoe sales clerk in his own department store while looking into the grumbles of the staff, who are unionising for better pay and conditions.

Merrick is befriended by unsuspecting union ringleaders Mary Jones (Arthur) and Joe O’Brien (Cummings), and also starts a romance with Elizabeth Ellis (Spring Byington).

Writer Norman Krasna mixes screwball comedy, romance and social comment to witty effect, and the lovely cast, packed with twinkling old charmers, acts up strongly.

Wood’s spirited direction ensures that The Devil and Miss Jones is full of fine moments.

Also in the cast are Edmund Gwenn, Spring Byington, S Z Sakall, William Demarest, Walter Kingsford, Montagu Love, Richard Carle, Charles Waldron, Edwin Maxwell, Edward McNamara, Robert Emmett Keane, Florence Bates, Charles Irwin, Matt McHugh, Julie Warren, Betty Brewer, Regis Toomey, Pat Moriarty, Irving Cummings, Almira Sessions and George Watts.

The interior of Merrick’s mansion is the Xanadu set of RKO’s recently shot Citizen Kane, with its well-known herring-bone brick pattern fireplace behind the Merrick’s desk.

The Devil and Miss Jones is directed by Sam Wood, runs 92 minutes, is made by Frank Ross-Norma Krasna Inc, is released by RKO Radio Pictures (1941), is written by Norman Krasna, is shot in black and white by Harry Stradling Sr, is produced by Norman Krasna and Frank Ross, is scored by Roy Webb, and designed by Van Nest Polglase and Albert S D’Agostino.

It is shot at RKO Studios, 780 North Gower Street, Hollywood.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,258

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