I'll Wait for You (1941)

This is How Movies Should Be Made

SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

"I'll Wait for You" from 1941 is an old plot, filmed in 1934 as "Hide- Out" and, with changes here and there, like "The Life of Jimmy Dolan," the bad guy who meets good people and reforms has been done many times.This time it's Robert Sterling as Jack "Lucky" Wilson who is the guy who has to get out of town after putting the squeeze on some local merchants. Injured, he winds up on the farm of the Miller family, consisting of various animals and Ma and Pa Miller (Fay Holden and Henry Travers) and their two daughters, Lizzie (Virginia Weidler) and Pauline (Marsha Hunt). No big surprise, he falls for Pauline and grows to like and appreciate the family.A good cast uplifts this. Robert Sterling is a little obvious as a tough guy, but Marsha Hunt is lovely as Pauline, and Virginia Weidler provides good fun as the feisty younger daughter. Paul Kelly is the detective after Lucky, and he gives a good performance as a not so hard-boiled lawman.This is a decent film with a sweet love story, elevated by Hunt's performance. I saw her a few years ago at a Paramount 100th birthday celebration -- she was in her nineties, looked great, and gave a nice talk. An underrated actress.

About 5 minutes into watching this movie on TCM, I noticed that the story seemed very familiar. Then it occurred to me that I was watching the same story as Hideout (1934) with Robert Montgomery and Maureen O'Sullivan. It is a wonderful story; both screenplays (while not identical they are storyboarded in an identical way) are terrific. For my money, the original edges this one out just slightly because it has a stronger cast. One has to ask, "Why so soon, only 7 years from the original?" I am a fan of Marsha Hunt -- beautiful and empathic, she'd make a great leading lady for any film. But I am a HUGE fan of O'Sullivan -- she is so supremely cute that her leading men must've always been falling in love with her. I don't think I've seen Sterling in anything else and he does a terrific job here. But Montgomery was really successful at being a lovable smart mouth and a menacing racketeer.I recommend both (for comparison) and both are wonderful, but be sure to see the 1934 movie!

Have always been a great fan of Marsha Hunt over the years and greatly enjoy her acting career and have seen her in Broadway Plays in NYC. Todate, Marsha Hunt is 90 years of age and will be 91 in October of 2008. This picture starts off with a hood named Lucky Wilson, (Robert Sterling) who is a big time gangster who is a tough guy and muscle man for the Mob in New York City. Lucky loves women and fast living and eventually he becomes wanted by the police and his bosses recommend that he take a trip to Conn. to hide out and get away from the heat. Lucky gets shot and is found by a farm family who take him under their wing and of course, Marsha Hunt,(Pauline Miller) appears as the sweet and lovely farm gal who takes care of Lucky and the two of them grow very fond of each other. However, Lucky does not tell her about his past and when a policeman named Lt. McFarley, (Paul Kelly) appears on the scene, things start to change. This is a very nice drama and a very sweet love story which will capture your heart like it did in 1941. Enjoy.

The plot has been done before. Hard boiled gangster on the lam hides out at a farm and falls for the local nice/innocent girl next door.Robert Sterling ( a poor man's Robert Taylor) plays Lucky the hood . He does a poor imitation of Robert Montgomery playing the part with a lot of Montgomery's mannerisms from "The Earl of Chicago".Marsha Hunt plays the farm girl who really falls for him.The plot has been done before , the very best of which is "The Life Of Jimmy Dolan" with Douglas Fairbanks Jr.