By Glenn Erickson
Make Your Own Bed
Brief Synopsis
Detectives masquerade as butler and maid to get the goods on a crook.
Cast & Crew
Read More
Peter Godfrey
Director
Jack Carson
Jerry Curtis
Jane Wyman
Susan Courtney
Irene Manning
Vivian Whirtle
Alan Hale
Walter Whirtle
George Tobias
Boris Murphy
Film Details
Genre
Comedy
Adaptation
Release Date
Jun
10,
1944
Premiere Information
New York opening: 26 May 1944
Production Company
Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.
Distribution Company
Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.
Country
United States
Screenplay Information
Based on the play On the Hiring Line by Harvey J. O'Higgins and Harriet Ford (New York, 20 Oct 1919).
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 22m
Sound
Mono (RCA Sound System)
Color
Black and White
Theatrical Aspect Ratio
1.37 : 1
Synopsis
Because of the wartime servant shortage, Walter and Vivian Whirtle have no butler or maid at their suburban house. Walter, who owns a gunpowder company, promises to return one evening with new servants, but at the employment agency, he finds only a room full of people eager to hire servants of their own. After Walter disdainfully tears up a parking ticket, he is taken to jail, where he meets private detective Jerry Curtis. Walter learns that while posing as a butler, Jerry accidentally arrested a district attorney. This information inspires Walter to invent a story about a gang of spies, and he hires Jerry to investigate, disguised as a butler. Jerry persuades his fiancée, Susan Courtney, to accompany him disguised as a maid, explaining that it is his chance to gain a big reputation and open his own agency so that they can be married. Walter's plan gets an added boost when he meets the actors who are to perform on a radio program being sponsored by his gunpowder factory. As they are to play Nazi spies, Walter suggests that they rehearse at his home and then tells Jerry that he has invited all the suspects for the weekend. Unknown to Walter, the actors actually are Nazi spies who intend to steal a secret formula from him. At the Whirtles', Susan and Jerry discover that their room has only a double bed, and Jerry is forced to sleep outside. Mistaking Jerry for a thief, Walter jumps him, and Jerry seeks refuge in the women's dressing room in the pool house. The next morning, Walter sets the scene to appear as if he is being threatened. Susan becomes jealous when she sees two actresses leave the dressing room, and she and Jerry quarrel while cleaning house, thereby destroying all the evidence that Walter had carefully created. Later, Jerry overhears Vivian reading one of Walter's old love letters to their neighbor, Boris Murphy, and mistakenly thinks she and Boris are having an affair. Jerry copies the letter, and Walter, not recognizing his own words, confronts Vivian, who angrily decides to leave him. In order to stop her, Walter asks the actors to stage a robbery. Jerry overhears his plans and when the actors stage the robbery for real, he nonchalantly tries to round them up. Soon, however, everyone has been subdued by the actors. While Vivian tells Walter that he was the man who wrote her the love letter, one of the actors, who is really a federal agent, secretly loosens Jerry bonds. Jerry manages to grab a gun and then accidentally shoots out the light. During the ensuing struggle, Jerry captures the federal agent. All the Nazis escape, but are quickly captured by federal agents waiting outside. The next morning, Walter and Vivian wait on Susan and Jerry. The two couples agree that each will spend three days a week acting as servants to the other and all will rest on Sunday.
Director
Peter Godfrey
Director
Cast
Jack Carson
Jerry Curtis
Jane Wyman
Susan Courtney
Irene Manning
Vivian Whirtle
Alan Hale
Walter Whirtle
George Tobias
Boris Murphy
Robert Shayne
Lester Knight
Tala Birell
Marie Gruber
Ricardo Cortez
Fritz Alten
Marjorie Hoshelle
Elsa Wehmer
Kurt Katch
Paul Hassen
Harry Bradley
Mr. Brookin
William Kennedy
FBI man
Jack Mower
Chauffeur
Leah Baird
John's wife
Ernest Hilliard
Man in waiting room
George Kirby
Man in waiting room
Gertrude Carr
Woman in waiting room
Barry Macollum
Employment manager
William B. Davidson
Mr. Linklater
Robert Homans
Policeman
Fred Kelsey
Turnkey
Edgar Dearing
Sergeant
Clay Womack
Fat man
Eddie Parks
Smith
Joan Winfield
Whirtle's secretary
Jack Norton
Drunk
Marie Blake
Crew
Milo Anderson
Gowns
Robert Burks
Director of Photography
Stanley Fleischer
Art Director
Leo F. Forbstein
Music Director
Alex Gottlieb
Producer
Lester Guthrie
Assistant Director
Edmund Joseph
Screenwriter
Clarence Kolster
Film Editor
Charles Lang
Sound
H. Roemheld
Music
Clarence Steensen
Set Decoration
Francis Swann
Screenwriter
Willard Van Enger
Special Effects
Jack L. Warner
Executive Producer
Richard Weil
Adaptation
Perc Westmore
Makeup Artist
Film Details
Genre
Comedy
Adaptation
Release Date
Jun
10,
1944
Premiere Information
New York opening: 26 May 1944
Production Company
Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.
Distribution Company
Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.
Country
United States
Screenplay Information
Based on the play On the Hiring Line by Harvey J. O'Higgins and Harriet Ford (New York, 20 Oct 1919).
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 22m
Sound
Mono (RCA Sound System)
Color
Black and White
Theatrical Aspect Ratio
1.37 : 1
Articles
Make Your Own Bed
The best-remembered wartime movie about labor and housing shortages is the hilarious The More the Merrier (1943), directed by George Stevens. Adapted from a 1919 play, the broad comedy Make Your Own Bed (1944) also focuses on topical home front issues, in this case, the labor shortage. Due to the war, frustrated gunpowder manufacturer Walter Whirtle (Alan Hale) can't find anyone willing to work as his butler or maid, and hatches a crazy plan to remedy his situation. He hires the lovable but foolish detective Jerry (Jack Carson) to go undercover as his butler, to protect his wife Vivian (Irene Manning) and look out for the enemy spies he claims to have seen lurking about. Walter then hires some actors to pose as spies - not realizing that they really are spies after Walter's company secrets. When Jerry gets his fiancée Susan (Jane Wyman) hired as an 'undercover maid' the Whirtle household soon becomes chaos. Jerry deduces incorrectly that Vivian is having an affair with her neighbor, Boris (George Tobias), while Susan thinks that Jerry is carrying on with two strange women in the pool house. In the crazy finale, Jerry inadvertently helps the spies by arresting the undercover G-Man sent to investigate. Director Peter Godfrey puts the emphasis on silly slapstick, choice pantomime gags and Alan Hale's comic rage, all in an atmosphere of victory gardens and householders desperate to find help. Reviewers noted that Make Your Own Bed shares subject matter with the same year's Standing Room Only (1944), where Paulette Goddard and Fred MacMurray must pose as servants because of a lost hotel booking. Warner Bros. must have thought that Alan Hale and Irene Manning could become an ongoing comedy team, because they were cast together as another funny man & wife duo in the next year's Escape in the Desert (1945). Denied the meaty roles reserved at WB for Bette Davis and Ida Lupino, to gain career traction Jane Wyman would have to get herself loaned out to Paramount (The Lost Weekend, 1945) and MGM (The Yearling, (1946).
By Glenn Erickson
By Glenn Erickson
Make Your Own Bed
The best-remembered wartime movie about labor and housing shortages is the hilarious The More the Merrier (1943), directed by George Stevens. Adapted from a 1919 play, the broad comedy Make Your Own Bed (1944) also focuses on topical home front issues, in this case, the labor shortage. Due to the war, frustrated gunpowder manufacturer Walter Whirtle (Alan Hale) can't find anyone willing to work as his butler or maid, and hatches a crazy plan to remedy his situation. He hires the lovable but foolish detective Jerry (Jack Carson) to go undercover as his butler, to protect his wife Vivian (Irene Manning) and look out for the enemy spies he claims to have seen lurking about. Walter then hires some actors to pose as spies - not realizing that they really are spies after Walter's company secrets. When Jerry gets his fiancée Susan (Jane Wyman) hired as an 'undercover maid' the Whirtle household soon becomes chaos. Jerry deduces incorrectly that Vivian is having an affair with her neighbor, Boris (George Tobias), while Susan thinks that Jerry is carrying on with two strange women in the pool house. In the crazy finale, Jerry inadvertently helps the spies by arresting the undercover G-Man sent to investigate. Director Peter Godfrey puts the emphasis on silly slapstick, choice pantomime gags and Alan Hale's comic rage, all in an atmosphere of victory gardens and householders desperate to find help. Reviewers noted that Make Your Own Bed shares subject matter with the same year's Standing Room Only (1944), where Paulette Goddard and Fred MacMurray must pose as servants because of a lost hotel booking. Warner Bros. must have thought that Alan Hale and Irene Manning could become an ongoing comedy team, because they were cast together as another funny man & wife duo in the next year's Escape in the Desert (1945). Denied the meaty roles reserved at WB for Bette Davis and Ida Lupino, to gain career traction Jane Wyman would have to get herself loaned out to Paramount (The Lost Weekend, 1945) and MGM (The Yearling, (1946).
By Glenn Erickson
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
A 16 December 1943 Hollywood Reporter news item notes that some scenes were filmed on location at the W. K. Jewett estate in Pasadena, CA.
