Metro's Idea Of 1946 Comedy

Character Comics Support MGM Youth in Faithful In My Fashion (1946)

Metro's dose of silly, released the same season as Cinderella Jones, which just shows how pervasive such stuff was in a market where ticket buyers voted loudest for comedies, never mind the being funny part. Loving couple here is Donna Reed and Tom Drake, neither gifted at farce, but pretty to frame in close-up, and grace fan pages. Believe it or don't, but many kept scrapbooks devoted to Tom Drake, some going to Ebay after passing of admirer(s). There's pathos in that, especially considering Drake himself ended up selling used cars down the boulevard from Metro (note Tom's message on the poster at left: Thanks for the fan letters). More than looks was needed to sustain, even at glamour-vested Leo. Donna Reed lasted for improving with time. Pair-off comedies like Faithful In My Fashion make us realize value of old-timers in support: Edward Everett Horton, Spring Byington, Harry Davenport, and Margaret Hamilton must have known they were the whole show, no matter their down-list billing. Given time-travel back to work in movies, I'd prefer life of a character player, next to absolute studio monarch, of course.