The Lady Wants Mink (1953) User Reviews

This is the story of the most patient husband that ever lived!

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 16 March 2018]

Jim and Nora Connors (Dennis O'Keefe and Ruth Hussey) have a normal 1950s life in the suburbs. Jim works for a department store in the collections department and Nora is mom to two cute little boys. But when the neighbor (Eve Arden) shows up with a mink coat, Nora loses her mind! She decides to make her own coat...by raising minks. Not surprisingly, this creates all sorts of problems, as it IS the suburbs, minks are possibly the meanest creatures on Earth and expenses are a lot greater than Nora anticipated. Add to that that Jim loses his job and you have a recipe for disaster! So what does become of the Connors clan?

This is an amiable family film...the sort that was pretty popular back in the day. However, nowadays the notion of folks raising minks would never be made due to changing sensibilities about fur coats...though minks are truly nasty creatures and many folks don't realize just how horrid they are. A fun film worth seeing and both O'Keefe and Hussey do a fine job.

Mr.&Mrs. Connors rise their dream vison farm

[MegaSuperstar · 7/10 · 15 August 2021]

Mr. And Mrs. Connors are a happy couple. They live in a nice house in a nice quarter with nice neighbours and no worries...except that Mrs. Connors has a strong unaccomplished desire that gets worse when her neighbour shows the new mink coat her husband has given to her: she WANTS A MINK COAT.

And since they can't afford to buy one, she has a bright idea: to rise a couple of visons so when they grow up will provide enough furs for a full mink coat. And so she rise the visons in the backyard. But simple as it seems things begin to get complicate and the dreamt mink coat brings more headaches than anything.

This is a nice comedy with good performanaces by the whole cast: Dennis O'Keefe and Ruth Hussey as the married couple and Eve Arden and William Demarest as their neighbours. Add Hope Emerson as the vison farm owner and the result is a nice entertaining comedy that provides a nice uncomplicated entertainment.

The desire for mink put their budget in the pink...

[mark.waltz · 7/10 · 1 February 2018]

Envy of wealthy next-door neighbors Eve Arden and William Demarest has struggling housewife Ruth Hussey determined to better their situation especially when Arden gets a mink from her much-nagged husband. Going to mink broker Hope Emerson, Hussey ends up with all the breedable minks she can afford at the time, plus mink burgers, cages, water bottles and watch ducks, enough to drive husband Dennis O'Keefe crazy. Hussey's obsession in getting a coat out of her purchase makes the already stressed out O'Keefe even all the more out of sorts, even pouring water on his boss Gene Lockhart's head after hearing voices in his head due to his lack of sleep and determination to stand up to him. Like Fred MacMurray and Claudette Colbert, their obsession with their furry friends turns their world into a city suburb variation of "The Mink and I".

Absolutely delightful from start to finish, this features excellent performances from the entire ensemble, with Hussey so focused on the minks that her wifely duties become secondary. O'Keefe is deliciously eccentric as mink fever takes over him, and Demarest and Arden nearly identical to William Frawley and Vivian Vance on "I Love Lucy", especially when the Ricardo's and Mertz's would have their occasional rows, and predicting the later years of that sitcom when they all moved to Connecticut. Cheerful Emerson is a far contrast to her legendary role of the evil Evelyn Harper in "Caged" (reminding me of a more sedate Ma Kettle), and Lockhart is delightfully prickly as O'Keefe's hypocritical boss. I wanted to see the snooty shop-a-holic Hilary Brooke getting taken down a peg or two by being rude towards O'Keefe for fighting against his collections call, but you have to assume that happens off screen due to a twist that unfortunately is never developed. The scene with the kids discovering their new farm reminds me of my first viewing of the summer farmhouse my family bought when I was their age. Just a perfectly lovely low-key comedy that will tickle your funny bone and make you realize that those cute, furry little critters aren't worth the time to raise simply for their coats.

Great Cast, Good Fun

[citizen_cupid · 10/10 · 5 November 2000]

This film is a great example of a good, solid B comedy of the early '50s, and has always been a favorite of mine. A superb cast of veteran studio players make the most of a light, ironic script. Eve Arden is particularly good as the arch, wise-cracking neighbor. The tone of the film is "suburbs-sophisticated" -- it will remind present-day audiences of the best old TV sit-coms of the '50s and early '60s. Suburban man versus nature in the form of a cage full of live minks. Lots of fun.

A determined woman works for herself!

[mcollinshed-1 · 8/10 · 21 April 2008]

This movie is NOT about a husband raising minks to make his wife a coat.

The female lead, Nora Connors, plunges into breeding minks to make her own coat. Because of her husband's employment problems and her determined business mind, the family's life changes direction.

It is a very funny movie and although I abhor the notion of a fur coat and actually am vegetarian, I love the fact that no one seems to question Nora's capabilities because she is a woman, and this was 1953!

Another plus is the chance to see "Uncle Charlie" and "Mrs. Cleaver" outside of their later sit-com environments.

The Republic of LUCY

[ptb-8 · 15 March 2005]

An interesting Republic production of the early 50s with Eve Arden and all set in suburbia. It is like a 90 minute color episode of I LOVE LUCY with Eve instead of Lucy. If you think this sounds odd, then consider that Republic usually did not stray into unfamiliar territory from westerns, action films and serials. Research shows that the studio stepped into an A Grade league with its multi million dollar grossing blockbusters like THE QUIET MAN and SANDS OF IWO JIMA. As a result it seems that Herbert Yates, the aging studio head realized Republic might generally upgrade and start making the sort of more sophisticated sub-urban films usually from RKO (like 'SUSAN SLEPT HERE) or even MGM (a year later to make the Lucy comedy THE LONG LONG TRAILER). The income was certainly there and rentals for Republic films 1946-1953 were huge. THE LADY WANTS MINK is a very funny situation comedy about a wife breeding her own mink coat. What is fascinating from a studio film making point of view is that it displays a 'modern suburban' world constructed at Republic which shows off the studio as well with big elaborate sets and a degree of snazziness rarely on screen in a Republic film. Nice to see. It did well at the box office and played initially as a main feature, as a lot of Repubic films were double features or support pix to bigger studio releases. THE LADY WANTS MINK has a proper release all to it's lovely own.

Cute, clean, good fun

[sharpl-1 · 9/10 · 24 February 2005]

This is a great classic movie! Very funny antics, very real characters, just a great overall movie.

The best friend is a hoot, and her husband is also very amusing. The change that comes over the kids in the countryside is amazing, but still very believable.

The best character, however, has to be Mrs. Moxie, the lady with the minks. She is hilarious (Ma Kettle)! She provides a great deal of humor with her style of dress and deportment.

Their beautiful house in the country is worth seeing. The transformation that it goes through with their hard work and determination is astounding.

All in all, a very fine movie if you like a wholesome, nice, funny movie for the whole family to watch.