Susan Slept Here (1954)

Susan Slept Here (Dir: Frank Tashlin, 1954).

Frank Tashlin made his name as an animation director at Warner Bros’ Termite Terrace before graduating to live action slapstick comedies of questionable taste such as The Girl Can’t Help It (1956) and this movie Susan Slept Here. 

As with much of Tashlin’s work Susan Slept Here is very much anchored to the decade in which it was made. The convoluted plot concerns Hollywood scriptwriter Dick Powell and 17 year old juvenile delinquent Debbie Reynolds who is given to Powell as a ‘gift’ on Christmas Eve in order to keep her out of jail during the festive period. 

Recalling such better comedies as Billy Wilder’s The Major and the Minor (1942) and the Preston Sturgess scripted Remember the Night (Mitchell Leisen, 1942), Tashlin’s middle age male fantasy remains just about on the right side of good taste. Were this movie made today it would certainly raise eyebrows and maybe it did in 1954. If it was made today I doubt the subject would be given the light and fluffy rom com treatment. As it is the movie is far more palatable than expected, thanks to the appealing performances of Powell and Reynolds and the assured direction of Tashlin who could turn out this sort of material in his sleep. The highly saturated Technicolor photography shows off the 1950s decor in all its garish splendour and Reynolds gets the opportunity to show off her considerable dancing skills in a very much of its period dream sequence. 

To fully enjoy Susan Slept Here requires a certain amount of suspension of disbelief, not least to accept 55 year old Powell as the 35 year old object of Reynolds’ desire. It is by no means a classic but neither is it the vacuum of good taste I was expecting. Fans of its director and stars, particularly Debbie Reynolds, will probably find much to enjoy.