Having been run out of her European country due to Nazi activity, Princess Maria (Olivia deHavilland), along with her uncle/guardian (Charles Coburn), is living in a New York hotel. Because Maria is of an age where she is expected to fulfill her duty to marry and have children---boys preferably---eligible men are continually calling on her. Not attracted to any of the "acceptable" men, Maria is rather bored and unhappy; deciding that a change of scenery might do wonders for Maria's state of mind, Uncle arranges for her to visit a ranch in California.
Flying under the name of Mary Williams, our lovely heroine, in the hopes of catching a few z's and sleeping through the flight, downs far too many sleeping pills. With bad weather keeping the plane in New York, Maria/Mary has no opportunity to sleep off the effects of the pills, thus, as everyone deplanes, she is out cold. Feeling responsible for the woman, yet unable to determine where she belongs, pilot Eddie O'Rourke (Robert Cummings) takes her for coffee at a local diner. Thinking that the slightly-dazed lady before him is simply in need of a good night's sleep, the waiter slips a sleeping pill into her coffee, causing her to pass out completely. Not knowing what else to do, Eddie takes the sleeping beauty to his apartment, where she spends the night.
Eddie and Maria begin seeing each other, but she doesn't tell him the truth about herself. In fact, she invents a story which has Eddie believing she is a refugee, bound for a housemaid job in California. He asks her to marry him, but much as Maria loves Eddie and wants to marry him, she is pretty sure her uncle would not approve of a marriage between them, so she attempts to break things off. Unbeknownst to Maria, however, her bodyguard has been following her and reporting back to Uncle, and when Uncle discovers that Eddie is one of nine boys and that his father was one of eleven boys, he embraces such a union. Only thing is, the couple now has to run their romance according to the rules and regulations of Uncle and royal proclamation...and that poses a problem. How it all plays out is the balance of the film.
While not a spectacular film, Princess O'Rourke is definitely cute, enjoyable, and loads of fun. Olivia deHavilland is sweet and well-suited to this role---and she's stunningly beautiful! Robert Cummings is delightful. Jack Carson, who is absolutely not a favorite, is out of character here---and for that reason, he doesn't bug me like he usually does. Jane Wyman, also not a favorite, is enjoyable in her role as well. And Charles Coburn is terrific. I got a huge kick out of him, especially as he reveled in the number of male offspring in O'Rourke's family, calling it a "veritable goldmine of boys." Again, this isn't a great movie...it's just a sweet, solid, 3-star film, well worth viewing.
The film is out on DVD, so it should be fairly easy to track down. Additionally, it is on the TCM schedule for Saturday, August 24th, at 9:45 a.m. (ET).
Happy viewing!!
