Just This Once (film)
{{Short description|1952 film by Don Weis}}
{{Infobox film
| name = Just This Once
| image = File:Just This Once (film).jpg
| caption =
| director = Don Weis
| producer = Henry Berman
| writer = Sidney Sheldon
| story = Max Trell
| starring = Janet Leigh
Peter Lawford
Lewis Stone
| music = David Rose
| cinematography = Ray June
| editing = Fredrick Y. Smith
| studio = Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
| distributor = Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
| released = {{Film date|1952|02|27||1952|03|17|New York|ref2=}}
| runtime = 90 minutes
| country = United States
| language = English
| budget = $547,000{{Citation | title = The Eddie Mannix Ledger | publisher = Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study | place = Los Angeles}}.
}}
Just This Once is a 1952 American romantic comedy film directed by Don Weis and starring Peter Lawford, Janet Leigh and Lewis Stone. It was produced and distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The film's sets were designed by the art director James Basevi.
Plot
Mark MacLene IV is a millionaire playboy who is irresponsible with his money, accumulating $5 million in debt. Judge Coulter, the executor of his estate, places Mark's finances in the hands of penny-pinching lawyer Lucy Duncan.
Mark is aghast when Lucy limits him to a $50-per-week allowance. However, he continues to spend wildly. When Lucy closes his access to his funds, Mark becomes angry and intrudes upon her personal life, moving into her apartment and upsetting her routine. She wants to quit but Coulter doubles her pay.
Lucy's fiancé Tom Winters has delayed proposing marriage until he can afford to wed. Mark owns a construction company where Tom works, so he secretly plots to secure a huge pay raise for Tom, but Lucy sees through the ruse. But when she learns that Mark also has offered his yacht for their honeymoon, she begins to see a different side of him.
Now in love, Mark and Lucy must forestall making plans for the future because the Navy Reserve has called him to active duty. Lucy fears for his safety, but Mark says that he is moving to Washington, D.C. to take a desk job in which he will be in charge of Navy expenditures.
Cast
- Peter Lawford as Mark MacLene
- Janet Leigh as Lucille Duncan
- Lewis Stone as Judge Coulter
- Richard Anderson as Tom Winters
- Marilyn Erskine as Gertrude Crome
- Douglas Fowley as Frank Pirosh
- Hanley Stafford as Mr. Blackwell
- Henry Slate as Jeff Parma
- Jerry Hausner as Stanley Worth
- Benny Rubin as Herbert Engel
- Charles Watts as Adam Backwith
- Ned Glass as the court clerk (uncredited)
- Ida Moore as Mrs. Morgan the landlady (uncredited)
Reception
In a contemporary review for The New York Times, critic Bosley Crowther wrote: "'Just This Once' is the title of the new Metro comedy ... It is also a fair expression of the measure of tolerance that a person of generous disposition might afford to adopt towards it. For there's no denying the obvious: the people who made this film had better do better next time. Meanwhile, what they've done will pass—for now. ... [W]e must caution Sidney Sheldon, who wrote it, and Don Weis, who put it on. Their boyish flippancy and nonsense had better henceforth be curbed."{{cite news |last=Crowther |first=Bosley |date=1952-03-18 |title=The Screen |work=The New York Times |page=22}}
According to MGM records, the film earned $707,000 in the U.S. and Canada and $352,000 elsewhere, returning a profit of $89,000.
Comic book adaptation
- Eastern Color Movie Love #14 (April 1952){{gcdb issue|id=264021|title=Movie Love #14}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- {{IMDb title|0044781}}
- {{TCMDb title|1680}}
- {{AFI film|50535}}
{{Don Weis}}
Category:Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films
Category:1952 romantic comedy films
Category:American romantic comedy films
Category:Films adapted into comics
Category:Films scored by David Rose (songwriter)
Category:Films directed by Don Weis
Category:1950s English-language films
Category:Films set in New York City
Category:English-language romantic comedy films
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