One Touch of Venus

Back in April, I mentioned how TCM was running a limited series called Two for One, in which 13 film people were selecting double features to run on Saturday nights through June. It says something about TCM's budget, I suppose, that TCM is rerunning the series starting tonight. On the other hand, it gives me several Saturday posts over the next few months, as I recorded a number of the movies that the programmers picked. That starts tonight, with Martin Scorsese's second selection, One Touch of Venus, at 9:45 PM.

The opening credits are over a Greek amphitheater-style backround. It's then revealed, however, that this is a miniature, as rising from behind is Eddie Hatch (Robert Walker). He's a window-dresser in the department store owned by Whitfield Savory (Tom Conway), designing the fancy front window displays. He's called in to Savory's office, although it's not for bad reasons. Savory bought some art for the store -- specifically, an expensive statue of Venus, the goddess of love. Savory wants to do a big reveal of the statue in the department store, and who better to design everything that goes around it thatn Eddie?

Meanwhile, everybody else at the department store, like Whitfield's secretary Molly (Eve Arden) and Eddie's co-worker and best friend Joe (Dick Haymes), worry about how much the statue cost. But that's soon to become the least of everybody's problems. Eddie is doing the display, and sees what a lovely statue his boss has bought. On a lark, Eddie climbs the stepladder and kisses the statue before going back to his work. He makes a comment to himself, and a voice responds. Eddie looks and notices... the statue has come to life! Venus is played by Ava Gardner, so it's no wonder the statue was so beautiful.

Unfortunately, Venus can't really go back to being a statue. And she's fallen for the man who kissed her, I suppose like Larry Hagman and Barbara Eden in I Dream of Jeannie many years later. Venus gets off the pedestal, and Eddie realizes that when it comes time for Savory to pull up the curtain revealing the statue, there isn't going to be any statue to reveal. Of course, how Eddie could have carried it away is a question. But there's no statue, so unsurprisingly Savory suspects Eddie.

And then Eddie has his friens to deal with, including girlfriend Gloria (Olga San Juan). None of them are going to believe his story. And Gloria is definitely not going to like that there's another woman trying to steal Eddie away from her. Venus is about to make that a bigger thing for poor Eddie, as she shows up at Eddie's apartment. After several ruses to keep people from finding Venus, he decides to take her back to the department store. Perhaps when Savory finds her there the next day, she'll be able to explain things. After all, she does have the face of the statue Savory bought, and he should be able to recognize it.

One Touch of Venus is a silly romantic fantasy movie, but it's one that's more than fun enough. At the same time, however, it's the sort of fluff you probably shouldn't think too deeply about. Everybody does a good job with the material and it's entertaining, and sometimes that's all that's really necessary.