Up in Mabels Room (1944 film)

Plot summary

Right after Gary Ainsworth (Dennis O'Keefe) is married to his Geraldine (Marjorie Reynolds) and they are about to celebrate one month as a married couple, he is contacted by his ex-girlfriend Mabel Essington (Gail Patrick). Mabel is now in a relationship with Gary's business partner, Arthur Weldon (Lee Bowman), and she wants to return a gift she got from Gary when they were in Mexico City on vacation.

Mabel comes to Gary's office, bringing the gift, and fortunately Arthur is out on business. Gary and Mabel share a taxi back home from the office. Mabel gives the gift, a slip with a loving message from Gary embroidered on it, to Gary. Later, as he gets out of the taxi he leaves the gift behind, wishing to be rid of it, but Mabel picks it up and brings it back to him at his apartment. She threatens to show it to his wife if he doesn't reveal the fact that they had a romance in Mexico City.

The following weekend the two couples all visit Arthur's sister Martha (Charlotte Greenwood), with yet another couple, Alicia and Jimmy Larchmont (Binnie Barnes and John Hubbard). Geraldine notices that Gary is acting suspiciously and keeps an eye on him. For a sum of money, Gary gets Boris the waiter (Mischa Auer) to sneak into Mabel's room and steal the slip back from her.

Boris manages to get into the room and find the slip. He gives it to Gary in the evening, who drops it in his dinner jacket pocket. While Gary is dancing with his wife, the slip falls out of the pocket, and he quickly stuffs it down a vase to avoid discovery. Sure of himself, Gary tells Mabel that he will tell Geraldine about their past romance as soon as she brings him the slip.

When Gary picks up the slip from the vase again, he notices that it is the wrong one. When Geraldine goes off to phone her mother for advice about Gary's strange behavior, Alicia deliberately flirts with Gary to see what is going on. He tells her about his secret, but she misunderstands, believing he has an illegitimate child.

Mabel discovers that her room has had a visitor and tells Martha about the slip and Mexico City. Gary and Boris make another attempt to steal the slip back, entering Mabel's room through the window, but they are interrupted by Mabel and have to hide under the bed.

Geraldine tells the others that she has spotted an intruder on the roof, and Martha gets her shotgun to fend him off. Jimmy starts to suspect something is wrong, since his wife Alicia is showing far too much interest in Gary. He gets jealous and believes she is having an affair with Gary.

Gary and Boris eventually manage to escape from Mabel's bedroom when she leaves, and they manage to find the right slip. While Gary holds the slip in his hand, Jimmy comes into the room, assuming Gary is holding Alicia's slip. There is a knock on the door and the three men all hide under the bed, unaware that it is Arthur knocking. Mabel comes into the room again and discovers the men hiding under her bed. Boris escapes up onto the roof, but Martha fires her gun at him, making him climb back in through the window again. Geraldine faints on the floor of the same room, and spots her husband hiding under Mabel's bed.

The next day Gary is sitting alone and abandoned in the library when Martha comes in carrying her maid's sister's baby in her arms. Since Martha has to go to the maid's wedding reception for a short while, she asks Gary to hold and watch the baby in the meantime. Martha tells Gary she has disposed of the slip by giving it to her maid Priscilla (Jane Lambert) as a wedding gift. While he is holding the baby, Alicia and Arthur see him and believe he is holding his illegitimate child in his arms.

Gary and Boris make one last attempt to retrieve the slip, by crashing the wedding and accidentally interrupting the whole ceremony. Boris tries to take the slip off the maid's wrist, but is knocked out by the groom.

Geraldine is about to leave the house when Gary finally returns with the slip in his hand. Gary manages to explain that it was this slip he was guilty of and Geraldine believes him. Soon after, Geraldine's mother phones again, but Geraldine refuses to answer, not needing any more of her advice.

Cast

Production

Edward Small bought rights in October 1941. He paid $25,000 for the rights and spent another $50,000 on adaptations that satisfied the Hays Office. This meant the film - which was to star Ilona Massey and Louis Hayward and be made after Twin Beds - took longer to make than anticipated.

Joan Bennett was announced to play the female lead but dropped out, reportedly over billing. Gail Patrick stepped up to the lead and Binnie Barnes took over her role.