Directed by David Butler, with a screenplay by Francis Swann, Agnes Christine Johnston and Lynn Starling, based on an original story by Leonard Lee, The Time, the Place and the Girl also had in its cast Janis Paige, Martha Vickers, S.Z. "Cuddles" Sakall, that long-time Warner Bros.' reliable Alan Hale and bandleader Carmen Cavallaro.
Shot in Technicolor on location in the desert resort town of Palm Springs, California, the Warner Bros. Burbank studios, and according to David Butler, a private home on Sunset Blvd., The Time, the Place and the Girl was another way for the company to get as much as they could out of Dennis Morgan, who had been elevated to star status in 1943 and was the highest paid actor in Hollywood two years later when this film was made. Once more, Morgan worked with his most frequent co-star, and close friend, Jack Carson, who he had known in their native Milwaukee. The two had toured together during the war and hung out together when they weren't working. Relative newcomer Janis Paige was appearing in her seventh film, and according to Butler, someone at the studio told her that she needed to lose weight. Paige took the advice too much to heart and required a blood transfusion, which was acquired by Butler's wife, who was working at the time for the Red Cross.
When it was released in December 1946, New York Times film critic Bosley Crowther called The Time, the Place and the Girl, "[A] hackneyed and mirthless affair in which a handful of farceurs and musicians clattered about for an hour and two-thirds. [...] [T]he combined and elaborate efforts of everybody, including LeRoy Prinz, who arranged the fancy stuff, have resulted in one of those pictures that you forget even while you're watching it." If The Time, the Place and the Girl was forgettable, it did introduce a hit song, A Gal in Calico by Leo Robin and Arthur Schwartz, which was a charting tune for Tony Martin.
SOURCES:
Butler, David and Atkins, Irene Kahn David Butler
Crowther, Bosley "The Screen" The New York Times 27 Dec 46
Gilpatrick, Kristin Famous Wisconsin Film Stars
The Internet Movie Database
http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/video/141095/Time-The-Place-and-The-Girl-The-Original-Trailer-.html
By Lorraine LoBianco
