One of Doris Day's few disappointments. The perky freckle-face is effervescent as usual playing small-town widow with two kids and a lobster business who is wooed by both long-time friend and lawyer Jack Lemmon and handsome but stolid reporter Steve Forrest. A bald Ernie Kovacs has the film's most colorful role as slimy, cigar-chomping railroad tycoon who tries muscling into Day's lobster action. Aside from some beautiful shots of trains and Doris interacting with a troop of Boy Scouts, this light-hearted whimsy fails to sparkle. It's slow and thinly plotted, and the child actors are badly cast (particularly the pig-tailed tyke playing Day's daughter, who looks like The Bad Seed). Kovacs' hamming-- and the faint whiff of chemistry between Doris and Jack--almost makes "It Happened To Jane" worthwhile. ** from ****
Review of It Happened to Jane
