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If you have a deep interest in how they picked juries in Los Angeles County around the year 1950, this is the movie for you. It begins with a couple of pre-credit shots (a rarity for Hollywood at the time) of the process and goes on its tiresome way for almost a third of the film. We are also introduced to our not very interesting jurors, who will spend most of their time talking about the case when they've been instructed not to and fighting with one another over nothing very much. Oh, and our two stars, Ginger Rogers and Dennis Morgan, fall in love for no particular reason. The murder case seems a distant afterthought for all involved.Eventually there is a lame parallel drawn between the proto-adulterous relationship of Rogers and Morgan with the adulterous (or was that, too, still in the potential stage?) affair between the accused and his other woman, the wife being the victim. Doubling down, a more direct parallel is established between the final holdout juror and the accused murderer. If I hadn't been on a Ginger Rogers kick I'd never have made it that far. This may not be her worst film, but I do believe that it is the most tedious. The most interesting thing about it is probably the location footage of Los Angeles that occasionally graces the proceedings. 3/10.
DKosty123
This effort is solid even though Ginger Rogers never dances one step. Even though she and Mr Morgan are the stars, this movies focus is more on the jury. You could call it 12 Angry Men light.It breaks all the rules for a jury. Don't talk about the case among yourselves becomes wait until the guards are all out of the room and discuss it endlessly. While the script is not as powerful as the Fonda classic, this one has it's points.It goes into more personal stuff about each person than you'd expect. I feel sorry for the guard in charge of communicating with the outside folks when the jury is sequestered. They ask him to do a lot of things for sure.Still, the busy body type of script makes the movie more interesting. Ginger Rogers does a good job in this one, being clever yet ordinary. The movie does make a lot of hints at what was viewed in 1950 as to how marriages are supposed to be. Divorce gets mentioned a lot too.While a period piece, the film has some character actors who you will know including one from Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea though his role as DA is really small.
edwagreen
Interesting film, but I must say that you really begin to wonder about the jury system when you have jurors serving who really don't understand the legal procedures and use feminine and male instincts to decide the fate of a person accused of murder.10 years after Dennis Morgan teamed with Ginger Rogers in her Oscar winning performance in "Kitty Foyle," the two were again in this film. Wisecracking Thelma Ritter is interesting as the common lady on the jury, but her ignorance becomes a little too annoying.The case takes a back seat to the relationship that develops between a divorced Rogers and a married Morgan.The film has an appropriate ending after the jury reaches a verdict. The film is interesting in the sense that the Rogers-Morgan love affair is used in a way to parallel the man accused of murder.
Neil Doyle
Ginger Rogers didn't have too much luck in her choice of material by the time the late '40s rolled around--except for a reunion with Fred Astaire in 'The Barkleys of Broadway' most of her dramatic films were a disappointment--but 'Perfect Strangers' has a well-written script from a play by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur. The two stars play jurors who find themselves on a jury panel for a murder trial. Sequestered, they fall in love despite the fact that Dennis Morgan is married, unhappily. The suspense comes from wondering what will happen to their relationship when the trial ends.Ginger had wanted to work with Dennis Morgan since their last teaming in 'Kitty Foyle'. Under Bretaigne Windust's sensitive direction, the two stars give interesting performances. Among the supporting roles, Thelma Ritter delivers her usual competent work. Well worth viewing, but not yet released to video. You'll have to catch it on one of the cable stations.
AD
