Directed by:
Mitchell LeisenScreenplay:
Claude BinyonCinematography:
John J. MescallComposer:
Victor YoungCast:
Rosalind Russell, Fred MacMurray, Macdonald Carey, Constance Moore, Robert Benchley, Charles Arnt, Cecil Kellaway, Kathleen Howard, Dooley Wilson (more)Plots(1)
Take a Letter, Darling is from the "boss lady" school of 1940s comedies. Fred MacMurray is Darling (that's his last name), an unsuccessful artist who advertises for a position as male secretary. He is hired by female advertising executive Rosalind Russell, who is all business--during business hours. MacMurray learns that his job description includes escorting Ms. Russell and her clients to social gatherings. This goes on and on until Rosalind begins softening her steely exterior and MacMurray asserts his male prerogative (this of course was 1942, when gender stereotypes weren't subject to the ACLU). The film's best moments belong to Robert Benchley as Russell's ad agency partner, who'd rather play cards than tend to business. Though Rosalind Russell seems to be typecast in Take a Letter, Darling she was actually second choice for her role; it had been slated for Claudette Colbert, but Colbert became unavailable when she took over for the recently deceased Carole Lombard in The Palm Beach Story (42). (official distributor synopsis)
(more)Cast
James Millican
USA
Best movies:
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
Love Crazy (1941)
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)
Cyril Ring
USA
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Edison, the Man (1940)
The Great Dictator (1940)
The Roaring Twenties (1939)
Jean Del Val
France
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Wait Until Dark (1967)
The Mark of Zorro (1940)
Bernadette (1943)
Arthur Loft
USA
Best movies:
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
The Roaring Twenties (1939)
Scarlet Street (1945)
Virginia Brissac
USA
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Strike Up the Band (1940)
The Little Foxes (1941)
Bert Moorhouse
USA
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It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
The Great Dictator (1940)
Sunset Blvd. (1950)
Sonny Boy Williams
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Hold Back the Dawn (1941)
Boys Town (1938)
Days of Glory (1944)
Karin Booth
USA
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Two Girls and a Sailor (1944)
Hold Back the Dawn (1941)
Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944)
Sidney D'Albrook
USA
Best movies:
The Power and the Glory (1933)
A Night at the Opera (1935)
Mrs. Miniver (1942)
Florence Wix
UK
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Fury (1936)
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
Dorothy Granger
USA
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Westward the Women (1951)
Mighty Joe Young (1949)
The Sign of the Cross (1932)
Manuel París
Spain
Best movies:
The Great Dictator (1940)
Casablanca (1942)
Midnight (1939)
Jack Gargan
UK
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The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939)
Citizen Kane (1941)
Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
George Reed
USA
Best movies:
After the Thin Man (1936)
Reap the Wild Wind (1942)
Show Boat (1936)
Pat West
USA
Best movies:
If I Were King (1938)
Bringing Up Baby (1938)
Ball of Fire (1941)
Francis Sayles
USA
Best movies:
Citizen Kane (1941)
Ball of Fire (1941)
Make Way for Tomorrow (1937)
Reginald Sheffield
UK
Best movies:
Random Harvest (1942)
To Each His Own (1946)
My Name Is Julia Ross (1945)
Nell Craig
USA
Best movies:
Edison, the Man (1940)
Mad Love (1935)
A Stolen Life (1946)
Keith Richards
USA
Best movies:
Reap the Wild Wind (1942)
The Ten Commandments (1956)
Samson and Delilah (1949)
Isabel Randolph
USA
Best movies:
Little Women (1949)
Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
Criss Cross (1949)