Director: MITCHELL LEISEN. Screenplay: James Edward Grant, Albert McCleery. Story: James Edward Grant. Photography: Ted Tetzlaff. Film editor: Eda Warren. Song: "I Find Love" (Dietrich) by Jack King and Gordon Clifford. Dance director: Douglas Dean. Music composed by W. Franke Harling, directed by Morris Stoloff. Supervising art director: Lionel Banks. Art director: Rudolph Sternad. Gowns for Miss Dietrich: Irene. Hats for Miss Dietrich: John Frederics. Jewels: Paul Flato. Production assistant: Francisco Alonso. Sound recording: Lodge Cunningham. Western Electric Sound System. Producer: Mitchell Leisen. A Mitchell Leisen Production. Executive producer: Charles K. Feldman.Copyright 26 January 1942 by Columbia Pictures Corp. A Charles K. Feldman Group Production. New York opening at the Capitol: 23 April 1942. U.S. release: 12 February 1942. Australian release: 11 February 1943 (sic). 9 reels. 8,235 feet. 91 minutes.SYNOPSIS: Elizabeth Madden (Marlene Dietrich), a celebrated musical comedy star, finds an abandoned baby and declares to her associates that she will raise the child. To show how much this lady knows about children, Elizabeth thinks the child is a girl, when it is actually a boy. The first time the baby cries, she thinks "she" is dying and begins calling doctors. She nearly drives her secretary Buddy (Aline MacMahon) and her business manager Kenneth Hanline (Stanley Ridges) crazy before they get in touch with Dr. Corey McBain (Fred MacMurray), a pediatrician with a yen to do research on pneumonia.COMMENT: Columbia is here attempting to imitate a Paramount picture — and succeeding mightily so far as sets, costumes and lighting go, but failing dismally as to script and direction. That last is really strange since Paramount alumnus Mitchell Leisen (together with his frequent Paramount photographer) is at the helm, but here in a strange studio, surrounded by unfamiliar craftsmen and technicians, his touch is heavy rather than light, emphatic instead of casual- seeming, pedestrian in place of imaginative. Of course the script is second-rate too, its witty lines grafted on to pasteboard and uninteresting (and often unsympathetic) characters, its one-line plot rapidly exhausted, thus forcing an unwelcome change of tone from heavy farce to tediously predictable romance to straight- out medical melodrama.Miss Dietrich looks the part but fails to convey the heart of gold the script so assiduously describes. She seems merely batty. In an even more impossible role, MacMurray, fine actor that he is, pulls out every stop to win audience support — and actually manages to wring a few good laughs out of the script through sheer charm and personality.A pity the momentum of the extremely witty opening credits is not maintained. Ten out of ten for the titles, boys, but alas the picture then goes steadily down the gurgler.OTHER VIEWS: A tedious domestic comedy that effectively wastes the talents of all concerned. It's sad to see Miss Dietrich being squandered in a piece of piffle like this, though she does have one musical number — fortunately repeated twice! But as for the rest of the film, it is almost unendurable to sit through it once. Whatever promise the script had, it soon takes a very predictable course with all the tediously familiar marital misunderstandings and melodramatic medical crises. The characters are as one-dimensional as the dialogue is witless and the direction has all the sparkle of a long-opened bottle of lemonade. The players do valiantly but the odds are stacked ever higher and higher against them. The film is well mounted too, with some very attractive sets and costumes, soft, flattering photography and a few of our favorite character players like Robert Emmett Keane (the hotel manager), Chas Halton (the hotel physician), Eddie Acuff (Patrolman Murphy) flitting around. But alas the film is a Humpty Dumpty which no amount of skillful dressing or deft editing could put together in an entertainingly acceptable form. — JHR writing as George Addison.Leisen is a set designer as much as a director. He probably spent so much time giving this picture the Paramount look, he skimped on pacing and performance. That's a pity, because in spacious sets, ritzy, sophisticated costumes and ensembles, and above all in that dazzlingly white, pin-point sharp yet glossily attractive cinematography, this is the best imitation Paramount picture I've ever seen. — JHR writing as Charles Freeman.

Marlene Dietrich has never been high on my list of actresses, although I did rather enjoy her performances in "Judgment at Nuremberg" and "Witness For The Prosecution". Now I can add a third film that I enjoyed her in -- "The Lady Is Willing". I guess for me she seemed just a little more "real", rather than "put on" in this film, and perhaps it's my imagination, but the accent seemed distinctly less strong here. And, her co-star is Fred MacMurray, one of the most currently underrated actors of his era. MacMurray turned in many enjoyable performances in his day, and this is one of them.It's an odd plot -- an eccentric Broadway actress walks off with a baby she was holding for a police officer who had found the baby abandoned. Adoption isn't viable due to the actress not being married...so what better target to marry than a pediatrician -- Fred MacMurray. What begins as a marriage of convenience turns into love, but after a misunderstood situation that nearly tear the couple apart, the baby's health comes into play. MacMurray saves the baby and Dietrich realizes her husband should continue to be her husband.While mostly a comedy, it has some swell romantic and dramatic scenes, as well.In addition to fine performances by the two stars, a number of costars shine here, as well. Particularly noteworthy is Aline MacMahon, whom you'll instantly recognize, but whose name you probably won't know. She never disappoints.This is a thoroughly enjoyable film, though it may not end up on your DVD shelf. But, then again, it just might.

This is a strange film due to its bizarro plot as well as its odd casting of Marlene Dietrich in, of all things, a screwball comedy!! It's actually hard to think of an actress of the day LESS suited for such a film, as her glamorous persona seemed out of place here.The film begins with a famous stage actress (Dietrich) coming home with a baby she just 'picked up' on the way home!! She is very blasé about it and eventually gets around to telling her housekeeping staff and assistant how she came upon the child. It seems that a child had been abandoned and a policeman had asked her, a passerby, to hold the baby for a moment. However, she was so captivated by it that she couldn't stand the idea of it going to an orphanage--so she just took it home and didn't bother telling anyone!! This sort of nuttiness is apparently the norm for Dietrich's character. She apparently has had a string of quickie marriages, spends far more than she earns and seems to have the motherly instincts of a 2 year-old. And, speaking of 2 year-olds, daffy Marlene calls the doctor (Fred MacMurray) for no reason in particular. When he asks how old the child is, she says "about 2 years-old"--and kid is clearly around 6-8 months old! Now HOW daffy Marlene's character acts would have been a stretch for any actress. She seemed frivolous and stupid even compared to the one played by Katherine Hepburn in "Bringing Up Baby"!!! So, from the outset, the writing really was a let-down for Dietrich. And having the romance eventually occur between the very level-headed baby-hating doctor (MacMurray) and her made zero sense! Overall, the film seems to be the epitome of the word 'contrived'. While there are lots of good moments and the germ of a good story here, the whole thing just never gels--it just doesn't ring true or work. It also doesn't help that the film goes from wacky to a bit maudlin and deadly serious late in the film! While the film is enjoyable if you turn off your brain, you really, really need to keep that brain in neutral throughout to enjoy the movie.

Part of the premise of The Lady Is Willing is that the famous can get away with anything. Picture if you will yourself who while the police are investigating reports of a baby abandoned in a boardinghouse, just up and taking the infant. That would probably land you in jail for a stretch. But for Marlene Dietrich, famous musical comedy star, everyone is just forgiving as all heck and let's her keep the little tyke.Everyone except the IRS who is insistence that she be solvent. Unmarried or not doesn't seem to be the issue. She owes a lot in income tax. So she persuades pediatrician Fred MacMurray to marry her. That would certainly save on doctor bills.As for Fred who wouldn't want to marry Marlene? But when they enlarge their living quarters it's for cages for rabbits. MacMurray is doing research and needs them for experiments. He's also got an ex-wife sniffing around in the person of Arline Judge. She's more trouble than the rabbits.The Lady Is Willing just will never be ranked as one of the 10 best for either Fred or Marlene. It makes so little use of MacMurray's comic talents which I find very strange. As for Marlene, there are times in the film when she comes across more like Doris Day.Best in the film might possibly Marlene's girl Friday Aline McMahon. She has the film's best lines.But fans of Fred and Marlene should like it well enough.