Susan Slept Here

Infobox Film
name = Susan Slept Here


image_size =
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director = Frank Tashlin
producer =
writer = Steve Fisher (play)
Alex Gottlieb (play and screenplay)
narrator =
starring = Dick Powell
Debbie Reynolds
music =
cinematography =
editing =
distributor = RKO Radio Pictures
released = 25 June 1954
runtime = 98 minutes
country = USA
language = English
budget =
gross =
preceded_by =
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amg_id =
imdb_id = 0047550

"Susan Slept Here" (1954) is a romantic comedy film starring Dick Powell (in his last film role) and Debbie Reynolds.

The film was nominated for two Academy Awards, for Best Music, Original Song ("Hold My Hand") and for Best Sound, Recording.

Plot summary

Mark Christopher (Dick Powell) is a successful Hollywood scriptwriter who has, since winning an Academy Award for sceenwriting, suffered from partial writer's block, and has been unable to produce a decent script. One Christmas Eve, he receives an unexpected and very unwanted surprise present.

A vice cop whom Mark befriended on a film set remembered his comment that he was thinking about writing a script about juvenile delinquency and wanted to talk to a delinquent. So the policeman brings him seventeen-year-old Susan Landis (Debbie Reynolds). Susan had been abandoned by her mother and was arrested for vagrancy. Not wanting to keep her in jail over the holidays, the kindhearted cop decided to bend the rules (much to the disapproval of his partner) and let her stay in Mark's luxurious apartment until her arraignment the day after Christmas, and giving Mark what he had casually asked for.

The thirty-five-year-old Mark is naturally appalled, but is eventually persuaded to take the girl in. This doesn't go over too well with his more adult girlfriend, Isabella Alexander (Anne Francis), the demanding senator's daughter whom Mark has been dating for years. Isabella's jealousy grows exponentially when Susan develops a crush on Mark. Mark's secretary Maude Snodgrass (Glenda Farrell), Mark's best friend Virgil (Alvy Moore), and his lawyer Harvey Butterworth (Les Tremayne), do their best to keep the situation under control.

The situation is further complicated when Harvey lets slip that Susan will likely serve three or four months in a juvenile detention facility after her arraignment, as public vagrancy and punching the sailor each have set jail terms attached, and Susan lacks the "visible means of support" and settled home life that would prompt a judge to suspend these terms. Moved, Mark decides to provide Susan with the appearance of support and stability - by impulsively taking her to Las Vegas and marrying her. The marriage, he explains to his friends, will last for just the few months needed to convince the judge that Susan has made good.

The love-struck Susan, of course, has other ideas. With the encouragement and support of Maude, who still regrets leaving her childhood love behind for a career in Hollywood, Susan determines to fight Isabella's schemes and Mark's doubts in order to convince Mark to make their marriage permanent.

External links

*tcmdb title|id=1064