Rent Love Nest (1951)

All Mod Cons - Love Nest review by CH

Some twenty minutes into Joanna Hogg’s Unrelated (2008), which felt far longer, it was time for the eject button and no curiosity about the fate of those in a Tuscan holiday home. Its place chanced to be taken by another household, Love Next (1951).

The scene opens in Manhattan, outside a brownstone house, which has been bought by June Haver while her husband William Lundigan has been in the Army abroad. Confusion begins with his entering the flat occupied by her, only to find another man in it - in fact, she has moved into the basement, where she attempts to control the tempestuous events created by the building itself and the residents to whom she has rented parts of it.

From a novel by Scott Corbett, this was written by I. A. L. Diamond who would work notably with Billy Wilder, including some films with Marilyn Monroe. As chance has it, she has a rôle here, a matter of a few scenes and as many minutes but is of course enough to have her lavished upon the film’s cover and a placed in boxed sets of her work.

Nobody should complain, for this has lifted an enjoyable film from the obscurity into which would perhaps have faded. And here one savour not only the badinage between husband and wife but a splendid turn by a suave conman Frank Fay with a line in seducing rich widows.

As with anything set in such an establishment, there is an abundance of plot but all this never becomes clogged - and, of course, leaves one to reflect that nowdays such a building could only be afforded by those who most likely also have a Tuscan retreat.

If the cast is now in Marilyn’s shadow, they provide high entertainment seventy years on - and unlike that of Unrelated, they do not mumble.