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Strong and Moving!

Pretty Good

Admirable film.

A Disappointing Continuation

Producer: Henry Berman. Copyright 16 January 1952 (in notice: 1951) by Loew's Inc. A Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer picture. New York opening at the Park Avenue: 17 March 1952. U.S. release: March 1952. U.K. release (on the lower half of a double bill): 31 March 1952. Australian release: 31 October 1952. 90 minutes.SYNOPSIS: A pretty young lady lawyer (played by Janet Leigh) is assigned to a handsome playboy (played by Peter Lawford) to curb his extravagant spending.COMMENT: Although it runs a somewhat overlong ninety minutes for a supporting picture (the usual length for a feature-length support was usually not less than fifty minutes and not more than eighty at the very outside – anything from sixty to seventy was considered ideal), "Just This Once" could certainly be classed as a somewhat high-grade supporting movie. For another thing, in addition to its length, this M-G-M production employs a great lead cast in Janet Leigh, Peter Lawford and Lewis Stone. This picture also features a pleasant and enjoyably entertaining screenplay by top-notch writer, Sidney Sheldon and it's also very attractively photographed by Ray June. Admittedly, Don Weis' direction is competent but nothing to write home about, but on the other hand, few moviegoers will notice this. What they will notice, however, is that David Rose has contributed a lively music score. All told, "Just This Once" is a movie that late-comers will be sorry they didn't see from the beginning.

It's a shame this is unavailable on any home video format. I genuinely enjoy this little piece of mid-fifties fluff, good for the whole family. There's even a bit of a twist with a little bite at the end, if you look at it compared to most films of its ilk. What a great way to waste an hour and a half.Janet Leigh is fun as the, of course, slightly uptight executor of the trust fund that the fabulous playboy Peter Lawford, who is also very good, lives lavishly on. I found most of the dialogue spot on and funny, and, best of all, poor Peter isn't forced to reform by the end of the film, and neither is Janet Leigh made to look foolish.

Since Janet Leigh is one of my favorite movie stars from the past, I really enjoyed this 1952 film where she stars as Lucy Duncan, a lawyer who had to work her way through some rough times in order to become a lawyer. Lucy has a boyfriend who is a civil engineer and makes eight-five dollars a week and Lucy finds out she has a new client who is willing to pay her fifty dollars a week and between the two of their salaries, they would be able to get hitched. The client Lucy has is Judge Samuel Coulter, (Lewis Stone) who wants Lucy to have a sort of power of attorney over the trust fund of Mark Maclene IV who is very wealthy and simply spends his money like water on all kinds of gals, giving them jewelry, furs and the list goes on and on. Lucy takes control and takes back all the items that Mark purchased and makes him live on fifty dollars a week, plus 50 cents for lunch. Lucy even shows Mark an auto mat where he can get his lunch for a quarter and takes him on a Staten Island Ferry ride for only 5 cents one way. Janet Leigh was twenty-five when she made this picture and was recently married to Tony Curtis. Great film to view, Enjoy.

This is a surprisingly strong romantic comedy starring Peter Lawford and Janet Leigh. At first they seem to be playing their stereotypical roles -- Lawford is immensely rich, and annoying: he spends too much, so his fund trustee -- played by the ever dependable Lewis Stone -- hires common, sensible, penny-pinching Janet Leigh to rope in his spending.At first I thought this was going to be another of those unfunny, empty comedies that Don Weis directed Peter Lawford in in the early 1950s, but this is quite different. There is a tremendous amount of character exposition between the gags, flaws and strengths of character together to make this a highly enjoyable movie.