You Belong to Me (1941) - film review

Whilst skiing in the Rockies, millionaire playboy Peter Kirk comes a cropper when doctor Helen Hunt, a less adept skier, crosses his path.  A man used to having his way, Kirk insists that Helen attend to his injuries and later persuades her to marry him.  Married life is not what the former playboy had imagined.  Helen is determined to on carry on her work as a medical practitioner and soon Kirk begins to imagine she is having illicit affairs with her patients...

This low-key romantic comedy would be instantly forgettable were it not for the delightful pairing of Barbara Stanwyck with Henry Fonda.  Whilst the match isn’t quite as rewarding as in their other films together – The Mad Miss Manton (1938) and
The Lady Eve (1941) – they succeed in lifting a tired scenario about marital strife and women’s rights above the merely mediocre.  To its credit, the film is ahead of its time in its portrayal of the modern woman, showing that a wife can still have a career after her marriage.  Had the film been made a decade later, it would no doubt have been condemned for its obvious left-wing sentiment, which might have been considered anti-American and even pro-Communist.

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