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TechnoTV - The Devil and Miss Jones
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List Price: $19.98
Our Price:
Your Save: $ 19.98 ( 100% )
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Manufacturer: RKO Radio Pictures
Starring: Jean Arthur, Robert Cummings, Charles Coburn, Edmund Gwenn, Spring Byington
Directed By: Sam Wood
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9786300208179
Format: Black & White
ISBN: 6300208176
Label: RKO Radio Pictures
Manufacturer: RKO Radio Pictures
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: RKO Radio Pictures
Release Date: 1988-06-08
Running Time: 92
Studio: RKO Radio Pictures
Theatrical Release Date: 1941-04-11
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: When will Devil and miss jones be on DVD ???
Comment: I am waiting for this fun movied to be on DVD or bluray ....
Come on ....
Plus African Queen ...
Bob
Customer Rating: 
Summary: What a Character!
Comment: John P. Merrick (Charles Coburn) is the devil, or at least that is what his employees think. There have been several uprisings in the company, and the events are topped off with a stuffed dummy likeness of Mr. Merrick. The real Merrick is fed up, so he decides to spy undercover. He takes a job as a slipper salesman alongside two women, the kindhearted Mary Jones (Jean Arthur) and sweet Elizabeth Ellis (Spring Byington). Mary's boyfriend Joe (Robert Cummings) is the ringleader of the plot against Merrick stores. This angers Merrick, but he quickly learns why the employees hate working there with secret shoppers breathing down their necks and selfish bosses. Merrick softens up thanks to the company he keeps, and the comedy mounts on a trip to Coney Island.
This is a breezy, fun film with a very lovable cast. Arthur is sweet as always and Cummings is a wonderful match for her, but it is Coburn who is the real star. It is interesting to see such an elderly character actor as the star, but that is exactly what he is and he carries the film well. He is appropriately funny, sweet, uppity, and lovable.
Check this one out. You won't be disappointed.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A Warm and Charming Comedy
Comment: "You're just one person against the world unless you've got someone." -- Jean Arthur
Jean Arthur and Charles Coburn shine in this underrated RKO classic. Perhaps because it isn't zany enough to fall into the true screwball category this warm and charming comedy often gets overlooked when the genre is spoken about. Sam Wood's direction, sets by William Cameron Menzies, a nice score from Roy Webb, and Norman Krasna's funny screenplay all add up to a good time for classic film lovers.
Charles Coburn is simply adorable as the maligned millionaire who goes undercover in a department store he didn't even know he owned until employees burned a life size dummy of him in effigy which makes the papers. Getting hired on as Tom Higgens so he can root out the people behind it doesn't have quite the outcome he'd intended. Immediately befriended by Mary (Jean Arthur) in the shoe department who loans him 50 cents for lunch because she thinks he's broke, his purpose becomes less clear with each passing day.
You'll find yourself chuckling as Merrick (Coburn) begins to take down names of management rather than employees in his "doomsday book" for what he experiences. What he also begins to experience is living, finding a friend in the sweet Mary and romance with her pal Elizabeth (Spring Byington). Robert Cummings is delightful as Mary's boyfriend, Joe O'Brien, who also happens to be the idealistic voice behind those workers revolting! S.S. Sakall is also endearing as Merrick's valet.
There are some fun scenes on the boardwalk and a mix-up which nearly lands them all in jail until Joe does some fast talking. Arthur never seemed more vulnerable than in a sweet scene on the beach where it is she who asks Joe to marry her, and gets turned down because he doesn't want to disappoint her. As Merrick gets more and more involved in his undercover life, and further from his real one, he begins to look at his wealth as something of a handicap!
A great ending which will make you glad you watched this one push a good film over the top into the 5 star range. Don't miss Coburn's fight with a young brat he's hired to make him look good. It's a riot!
Customer Rating:
Summary: A classic too long overlooked
Comment: I adore this movie. It has a charm that time can't dilute. The references to labor unrest and class differences resonate in today's world, and the performances are lovely. A true standard for romantic comedy. The term sounds more frivolous than this small jewel of a movie deserves.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Fun in Past Tense
Comment: "The Devil and Miss Jones" is one of those "fun" movies out of the '30's and '40's. Back then Hollywood had a varied sense of humor within a general framework of decency. As such, there were a lot of "screwball" comedies that might not always be understood by all generations but at least could be viewed by all generations. Nowadays the rating of the movies restrict their audiences (and, generally, for good reason). Thus we end up with cartoon and animal-themed movies for little kids, inane junk (like "Joe Dirt"-sorry Robby) for pre-teens, silly romance comedies for teenagers, and profane whatevers for adults. There was an art to making a movie that could be enjoyed by all generations and comedy was one genre that generally attracts all generations (what pre-puberty juvenile would want to watch a romantic drama even if it was rated G). That was what kept running through my mind as I watched "The Devil and Miss Jones".
The premise is as fertile as it is silly; a multi-millionaire is bothered by labor unrest in one of his least important businesses. To find out what the problem is, he mascarades as a new employee and the fun begins. There is a fair amount of social commentary mixed into the script but nothing too serious. (You understand that from the disclaimer at the movie's beginning). The various different hijinks that arise are enjoyably funny. I may not have laughed out loud but I did smile a lot; both inwardly and outwardly. Movies like these are required to have a happy ending and there is an interesting twist to this one.
The acting in "The Devil and Miss Jones" is pretty good with the best preformance given by Charles Colburn. Jean Arthur does comedy well and this movie serves as a reminder of that fact. Bob Cummings gets a bit much at times but, then, he's supposed to. There are plenty of other great efforts including an appropriately reserved preformance by Spring Byington.
"The Devil and Miss Jones" is not a great movie; it is a good movie. In its' own way, it is a testament to the quality that was Hollywood two or three generations ago. Subtle is not a word often used to describe modern cinema. This movie reminds us how disappointing that is.
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Editorial Reviews:
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In one of those plot devices so dear to writers of romantic comedy (in this case, the venerable Norman Krasna, of Wife vs. Secretary and Mr. and Mrs. Smith), financier Charles Coburn goes undercover as a shoe salesman in a Manhattan department store that's a tiny part of his portfolio, hoping to discover why the employees hate him so much. He has the luck to be assigned to the counter next to Jean Arthur, rasping out one of her inimitable hard-nosed working-girl-with-a-heart-of-gold performances, who befriends Coburn and introduces him to her boyfriend (Robert Cummings)--the leader of the labor unrest. Directed by the stodgy Sam Wood (King's Row), the film flirts with '30s radicalism but settles for prudent class reconciliation: turns out that all the employees want is a little bit of gratitude and respect. Coburn got his first Academy Award nomination for his gruff but ultimately lovable coot (and won the Oscar two years later, opposite Arthur in The More the Merrier), a part he was to play for much of the rest of his career. Some startling deep-focus effects suggest that cinematographer Harry Stradling may have been spying on Citizen Kane, shooting just down the hall at RKO. Ultimately, though, it's Arthur who gives the film its authenticity and tremulous charm. --Dave Kehr
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