ROOM FOR ONE MORE: Blu-ray (Warner Bros. 1952) Warner Archive

There is something about actress, Betsy Drake that I have never understood, and frankly, it’s her appeal as the third Mrs. Cary Grant, a union begun with a whirlwind in 1949, only to end in a drizzle 13-years later. It was likely good for even less than that, as Drake and Grant unofficially separated in 1959, long after he had developed ‘a thing’ for Sophia Loren, but remained amicably wedded ‘friends’ until 1962. When Grant was later accused of being a homosexual, following a notoriously glib assault on his character in the mid-1970’s by comedian, Chevy Chase, Drake’s rather flippant reply, “Why would I think Cary was gay when we were so busy fucking?” was – I think – meant as a rather crude declaration of Grant’s ‘all-male’ sexual proclivity. If nothing else, I suppose we should give it to Drake for standing by her man. But as a couple, Drake was decidedly the mousier and more naïve of these two – a quality that may have held some allure for Grant, who had already been linked to the strikingly handsome actress, Virginia Cherrill, and then wealthy sophisticate, Barbara Hutton; this latter union to be unceremoniously branded as ‘Cash’ and ‘Cary’.  So, perhaps, Drake represented a departure from the ‘usual’ glam-bam. Even so, some of the candid shots of the couple taken at the time reveal a far-away look in Drake’s eyes. Disillusionment with their union, or merely the after-effects of LSD? - a drug, then prescribed for psychiatric purposes, and liberally explored by both Drake and Grant under the ‘professional’ observations of a doctor.

Drake’s past before she met Grant bears brief consideration here, just one of the survivors of the notorious sinking of the Andrea Doria. Drake had taken the lavishly appointed Italian liner on her way home from Spain where she visited Grant on the set of The Pride and the Passion (1957). When the Doria collided with the Stockholm, Drake, along with 700 of her fellow passengers, was rescued by the famed French liner, Île de France. Drake’s professional pursuits as an actress seem to pale to this pivotal event in history. Prior to meeting Grant, she supported herself as a model, impressing playwright, Horton Foote, enough to be cast as the understudy for his, Only the Heart. This, in turn, enabled Drake to join the Actors' Equity Association. She was then ‘pressured’ by producer, Hal B. Wallis to sign a Hollywood contract, a decision she came to abhor and eventually dissolved on her own terms by declaring herself legally ‘insane’. From this inauspicious beginning, Drake then met up with Elia Kazan, becoming one of the founding members of the Actor’s Studio in New York.  Cary Grant first entered Drake’s life in 1947 on a return trip to the U.S. aboard the RMS Queen Mary. By then, under contract to RKO Pictures and David Selznick, Drake was cast opposite Grant, in the featherweight comedy, Every Girl Should Be Married (1948). The next year, romance blossomed and Betsy Drake became Mrs. Cary Grant #3. A bit scattershot, Drake introduced Grant to transcendentalism, mysticism, and yoga. She also became active in the plight of homeless children in Los Angeles. In the meantime, Grant appeared alongside his wife in the briefly popular radio series, Mr. and Mrs. Blanding (1951).

Director, Norman Taurog’s Room for One More (1952) catches the couple’s private life in semi-full-swing, though oddly, much of the chemistry exhibited together in Every Girl Should Be Married is completely evaporated herein. After this bloom had worn off, Drake concentrated her skills on writing, penning the original screenplay for Houseboat (1958) – the movie, in which Grant notoriously pursued Sophia Loren, who rebuked his advances at every opportunity. Smartly done, as Sophia was already well on her way to becoming Mrs. Carlo Ponti. Yet, only the year before, Loren and Grant had frayed their cuffs and collars in private on the set of The Pride and The Passion. And Grant, rather cruelly, insisted Drake – who had written Houseboat as another husband/wife costarring vehicle for them – be replaced by Loren; also, to have Drake’s original script re-written by Melville Shavelson and Jack Rose, thereby denying Drake even a basic screen credit for her authorship. Drake and Grant would separate this same year, but remain wedlocked until 1962 – the dissolution of a very curious alliance indeed.

I will simply go on record I am not a fan of Cary Grant’s later career – mostly relegated to fluffy homespun comedies like The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer (1947), Dream Wife (1953) and That Touch of Mink (1962) - movies to play heavily on his trademarked wit and sophistication, also his good looks – arguably, to make a mockery of an aging ‘pretty boy’. There was still a lot of A-list good stuff to be had from Grant’s emeritus years, notably, To Catch a Thief (1955), An Affair to Remember (1957), Indiscreet (1958), North by Northwest (1959) and Charade (1963). But more often than not, Grant slipped into a sort of middle-aged contentment, playing to the fluff, never to strain his acting chops. Room for One More is of this latter ilk – congenial, pedestrian and passable at best.  Herein Grant is cast as George ‘Poppy’ Rose, an engineer wed to Anna (Drake), a sort of forthright gal who puts her marriage on the line to foster a discontented teenage girl, Jane Miller (Iris Mann). We can actually empathize with George here. After all, the couple already have 3 children of their own, Tim (Malcolm Cassell), Trot (Gay Gordon) and Teenie (George Winslow) plus a small menagerie of pets. Can it get any more cloying and coyer than this? Apparently so, the Rose/Shavelson screenplay weighing heavily on the flaws and foibles of middle-class, mid-American domesticity, circa the baby boomer/Eisenhower era: a golden epoch endlessly eulogized in the movies and on television with Suzy Cream-Cheese idealism, buoyed by America’s own post-war prosperity. While some long for a return to this type of homespun, yet antiseptic cleanliness, yours truly would suggest two things: first, no such virginal panacea, dedicated to the perpetually ‘happy family’ ever existed – not in post-war America, nor anywhere else at any other time in human history…except, in the movies, and second, that the artificiality of the exercise in this movie especially, wears extremely thin almost from the moment the main titles fade into the body of our storytelling.

The chronic joke, played ad nauseum, and, to the point of absurdity, is Mr. and Mrs. Rose never manage any quality time alone as a couple. Examining this notion more completely, one ought to acknowledge had the Roses not had ‘any opportunity’ to be alone, they also would not be the frazzled parents of three little moppets, far too precocious for their own good! As bad fables go, Anna wears George down until he agrees to allow her another summer foster child, 12-yr.-old, Jimmy-John Wilson (Clifford Tatum Jr.), a reclusive tyke who also suffers from an orthopedic disability. Jimmy’s curiosities about the opposite sex are peaked, leading George to take the boy in hand. But Jimmy also has a streak of frustration, smashing Tim’s new bicycle after denied to ride it. Anna also realizes that despite his age, Jimmy is practically illiterate. Given these major hurdles, the Roses briefly entertain returning Jimmy to the orphanage. Their own children veto this suggestion. On New Year’s Eve, Jane’s date, Benji (Larry Olsen) informs her that his mother, Grace (Mary Treen) has frowned upon their seeing one another. Jane is heartbroken. But George valiantly attends the boy at his home and appeals to his father’s (Charles Watts) better judgement.  Overcoming such obstacles illustrates the merits of adopting older children, with Jane and Jimmy becoming full members of the Rose’s blossoming family. Buoyed by their success, Anna implores other parents to consider the rewards of fostering older children. At story’s end, Jimmy receives his Eagle Scout medal at a Court of Honor ceremony, while George and Anna finally get their time alone together.

Room for One More is based on Anna Perott Rose’s book of the same name. Evidently, Ms. Rose spoke from the heart, her memoir of their real-life family adventures, reshaped only slightly in the Rose/Shavelson screenplay, preserving the honesty, frankness and sincerity of the author’s candid exchanges between wife and husband. We can believe Betsy Drake as the motherly type and crusader for unwanted children. But it’s a bit of stretch to see the urbane Cary Grant assume the mantel of fatherhood. And yet, Grant has his best moment during his unvarnished talk with Jimmy about ‘the birds and the bees’.  Room For One More ought to have been a better movie. It has a well-anchored sense of humor and the accoutrements to make it truly heart-warming. Alas, its pedestrian, vignette structure plays more as a coming attraction for a better movie that never arrives. Ironically, Grant is merely adequate here, while Drake excels at playing this homespun derivative of herself. The reoccurring Freudian frustrations felt by George – who seemingly cannot ever find the right moment to be with his woman – leads to some slightly blue inferences about a grown man’s desire to revert back to those ‘good ole days’ of footloose and fancy-free bachelorhood, when sex was the most prescient thing on his adult mind. That can be funny. But here, it’s decidedly overdone.

Despite its virtues, Room for One More rarely goes beyond an extended promo for foster care. The domestic flair-ups along the way wear out their ‘heart-warming’ ambitions almost from the start, retreating from the saccharine just a little. Evidently, Taurog was not at all convinced Grant should play ‘dad’ – so, there is a truly awkward moment when Grant dons sleek white bathing trunks to lend uncharacteristic ‘sex appeal’, likely a comfort to those ladies in the audience who were expecting to see as much – and more – in any rom/com starring Cary Grant. Room for One More is salvaged by its intermittent bits of sentiment, occasionally spread thin across its slickly packaged good humor. And Grant and Drake do establish some genuinely affecting chemistry. I am just not entirely certain any of it ever veers towards becoming convincingly romantic.  That said, there is no finer example of human altruism at work than adult compassion for children – particularly, those not to their own manor born. Room for One More never loses sight of this, or the true-to-life humorous complications that can – and do – arise when and where children are concerned. As such, the picture’s sentiment teeters on, but never turns to treacle, even at its most shameless – and oft, rather affecting – tugs at our heartstrings.

Room for One More arrives on Blu-ray via the Warner Archive in a sparkling B&W transfer that really shows off Robert Burk’s handsome cinematography to its very best advantage. Contrast is excellent, as is gray scale tonality.  A light smattering of film grain appears very indigenous to its source. WAC has done its usual bang-up job on eradicating age-related damage without applying any untoward digital tinkering to artificially enhance the visuals. The 2.0 DTS mono audio makes good solid use of Max Steiner’s lovely score. Dialogue is crisp and SFX are nicely integrated into this mix. Extras are limited to a trailer, and two classic animated shorts. Bottom line: Room for One More was meant as a meaningful dramedy about the virtues that emerge when the human heart exposes itself to the humorous vices of living life to its fullest…with children. Although the movie occasionally succeeds in these efforts, more often than not, it remains precisely the sort of ‘little gem’, by 1952, fast falling out of favor with the movie-going public. Today, it plays as more of a rarified relic than a bona fide cinema classic – a genuine pity. But uber-masculine Cary Grant as everyone’s warm and cuddly all-American daddy?  It just doesn’t play. The Blu-ray, however, is quite excellent. Were that the story told here was half as much – regrets.

FILM RATING (out of 5 – 5 being the best)

2.5

VIDEO/AUDIO

4.5

EXTRAS

2