It Happened to Jane (1959)

This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

It is a performances centric movie

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

A Masterpiece!

It's Doris Day in Frank Capra territory where she goes up against the conglomerate that bought out the railroad that was shipping lobsters to her for her distribution company. A widow with young children, Day takes the head of the company (Ernie Kovacs) on with the help of small town lawyer Jack Lemmom and gets a fight that she refuses to back down from. Not one of her better known films, this is Doris in a rare dramatic part (with definite comic overtones) while Kovacs is a dark character completely unlikable. He's the type of silent movie villain that would kick the widow out into the snowy cold and not loose a night's sleep over it. Even in the sound era, he'd get silent era movie style hisses.Singing the title song over the credits and a ditty with a group of local kids, Doris does get best to make this lighter fare than it really is. Had this been cast with any other actress, it would not be as cutesy as it is, and that there within lies its weakness.Such familiar faces as Mary Wickes, Gene Rayburn, Gary Morton and Jayne Meadows appear in smaller parts, but this is a battle between down to earth Doris and cold, calculating Ernie as to who will steal the film. Jack Lemmom does his best in a rather wasted part that any handsome young actor could have played.

Doris Day is an astute businesswoman who deals in the mass production of Lobsters. When her latest delivery goes awry due to incompetence of the E&P Railroad, she decided to take them on. All while affairs of the heart try to come into play.Nothing really wrong with the film as such, it's all very harmless, a pleasant romantic comedy, with a likable cast (Jack Lemmon & Ernie Kovacs join Day)to while away the time with. It's just not a very interesting story, one where the love arc plays second fiddle to a bunch of over cooked sequences elsewhere. Whilst what could have been a strong feminist front never quite gets driven home. 6/10

Entertaining A-budget production, but too plot-heavy to really succeed as a comedy, despite the heavyweight talents of Lemmon, Kovacs, Day, and director Quine. In short, the comedic moments have to compete with too many plot developments in a screenplay more seriously complex than most comedy set-ups. Strong-willed Day is determined not to be bested by railroad tyrant Kovacs in getting her lobster business going. Throw in a romantic triangle and Lemmon's political ambition and you've got a crowded storyline. Nonetheless, all the principals are in fine form—Day's all sunny spunk, Lemmon's a slightly pixilated attorney, while Kovacs does his usual moustache-twirling villain.As entertaining as these characters are, the movie really succeeds as a slice of idealized Americana. Whoever decided to film in an actual New England small town and use the residents for the many crowd scenes deserves a medal. The resulting visuals are a permanent record of small town America at mid-century and wonderfully colorful to look at. There's a bit of Norman Rockwell nostalgia in some of the set-ups that could have come off a Saturday Evening Post cover, especially those around the train station. And what could be more popularly American than the little guy (gal) besting the big guy at his own game. I just wish the script had eliminated the unnecessary and non-comedic Day/Forrest subplot, and instead mixed in more interaction between Kovacs and Lemmon whose chemistry is superb as shown in the under-rated Operation Mad Ball (1957). Nonetheless, there are enough compensations to make this a very watchable 90 minute diversion.

As the tag line says, it could have happened to anyone, but it happened to Jane. What is it? It's this nice story of Jane, who inherited a lobster business from her dad and her struggles to get them to restaurants etc. due to "the meanest man in the world" Ernie Kovacs, the man who owns the train service that goes through her little town in Maine. Jack Lemmon is a local attorney who's been friends with her since so high. For such an unknown movie, you would think it's pretty lame. It's not what I would call a laugh-a-minute or a laugh-out-loud comedy, but it's very good at creating character and life in Cape Anne, Maine. They make us care very much about the people in this small town, but the battle between Ernie and Doris gets out of control and in the last half hour, one tends to lose some interest. But overall, a pleasant diversion for Jack and Doris fans, with a dashing Steve Forrest to boot, to give Jack a run for his money. Who will win Doris' hand? Well, it happens like this...