You Belong to Me

After an accident on the slopes, wealthy playboy “Peter” (Henry Fonda) ends up in the care of physician “Helen” (Barbara Stanwyck) who basically tells him there is nothing wrong with him that a few hours in bed won’t cure. Being a man of means, however, plenty of other doctors are hovering around him offering all kinds of treatment, but he’s taken a bit of a shine to “Helen” so decides to stick with her. She just wants to get on with her patients, but he’s no slouch when it comes to distracting her and so, yep - it’s a whirlwind romance. She’s ill-prepared for his stately home or it’s fastidious butler (Melville Cooper), but she’s far less prepared for her new husband’s suspicions. She can barely look down a patient’s throat without him suspecting she is up to something, and these problems only spiral as a friend they share in common accidentally makes matters worse. After one calamitous intervention, she loses her temper and demands that he find some sort of purpose, else their relationship will be doomed. Never having worked a day in his life, he hasn’t really a clue so he decides to abscond from their home until he can present her with a shock. Well, a few actually - but will it save the day? This starts off quite strongly with both Stanwyck and Fonda working well together delivering a lively script and some borderline slapstick scenarios whilst the starchy Cooper remains stiff upper lipped amidst the chaos. It struggles into it’s last quarter though as the pace drops off and the story rather runs out of steam. There never was an whole heap of jeopardy, no, but the banter between them was initially quite good fun and it entertained for a while showcasing both of their comedic skills and it’s worth a gander for the first hour or so before sentiment bared it’s teeth and it became just a little too twee. Still, it’s a solid team effort that raises a smile.