JohnHowardReid Here's a screenplay by Harry Kurnitz and Frank Tashlin, based on a Broadway musical which was itself based on a novel. Ava Gardner, borrowed from MGM for the title role, walked out on the movie due to friction with her co-star, Robert Walker, before it was completed, so it's a little hard to judge whether some of the movie's problems were inherent or accidental. In any case, director William A. Seiter is not exactly first league. In fact, in my original review, I wrote that he was a hack and that I couldn't imagine why a savvy producer like Lester Cowan had hired him in the first place. Now that was unjust. A director can only direct what's placed in front of him. He's not a mind reader, nor is he usually a man who can improvise like say Rene Clair or George Marshall. Fortunately, Eve Arden needs no coercing. She has some very funny lines here and delivers them most expertly. The dances were staged by Billy Daniels, and he also is always no top of his game. So what we have here is a pretty good movie. I'd give it 7.5! But it could -- and should -- have been better!

Maddyclassicfilms One Touch of Venus is directed by William A. Seiter, has a screenplay by Harry Kurnitz and Frank Tashlin. The film stars Robert Walker Sr, Ava Gardner, Eve Arden and Tom Conway.Eddie Hatch (Robert Walker Sr)is a window dresser in a large department store. Eddie is arranging a statue of Venus which is to be unveiled and to his surprise Venus(Ava Gardner)comes to life. The statue disappears because she has come to life. Store owner Whitfield Savoury(Tom Conway)suspects Hatch of stealing the statue. Comedy ensues when Venus falls in love with this mortal man who has brought her to life.Ava is perfect casting for the role of goddess taking human form, she is at her most beautiful here and there is an ethereal air about her. Ava and Robert work so well together, it's a shame they never made another film together.Robert usually starred in more dramatic films but here he proved what a good comic he could too. He conveys Hatch's bemusement and panic at the situation he has found himself in so well.Conway is good as the store owner and Eve Arden is good as always as Savoury's assistant.

mark.waltz That's basically what has happened to the 1943 Broadway musical in its transformation from stage to screen. It has lost its sophistication, innocence, wit and most of its score, turning into a "B" movie ready for the late late show long before the late late show even existed. Like Universal also did with Sigmund Romberg's "Up in Central Park", they have removed not only the physical color, but the emotional color as well. The fault lies with the studio, who had on loan from MGM the perfect star (Ava Gardner) to play the Roman Goddess of love coming to life when department store clerk Robert Walker kisses her in a moment of impetuous madness. With Rita Hayworth just having played the Greek Goddess Terpsicore in Columbia's "Down to Earth" just the year before in glorious Technicolor, it is as mystifying as the subject matter why Universal (who had done some pretty good color adventures with Maria Montez and Sabu) would do this movie in black and white, as much as I love black and white. Unless she is doing a film noir, Ava Gardner screams for Technicolor! Only a handful of Kurt Weill's songs have made it onto the screen, most notably "Speak Low" and "That's Him", so this ends up being a truncated version of the Broadway show. There are still some good moments, particularly with Eve Arden, playing the wise-cracking but goodhearted secretary (what else?) to playboy department store owner (Tom Conway), and supporting player Dick Haymes getting to sing since obviously squeaky voiced Robert Walker can't. The lovable Sara Allgood has a nice cameo as Walker's strict landlady who just adores bubble baths, and perennial cop James Flavin has some good moments as the detective whom Gardner makes act like an owl. WHO???? Ava Gardner is beautiful, of course, whether she's in black and white or color, but she's at her best in roles that require a lot of "heat", and here she's more of a kitten. Remember the haunting image of her at the end of "Show Boat"? Imagine her in Venus's wardrobe in Technicolor. Notice, I'm not talking colorized (as this has been, BADLY). Robert Walker, who would go on to more lechery than his naiveté here once Hitchcock got ahold of him, is likable, but Olga San Juan plays a stereotypically nagging fiancée. Like they did with the same year's "Mexican Hayride" (by adding Abbott & Costello), I saw this as just another formula comedy with music rather than the artistic triumph it could have been.

Neil Doyle When Universal-International decided to film ONE TOUCH OF VENUS from the Broadway musical by Kurt Weill they dropped most of the songs, gave it the B&W treatment instead of Technicolor, cast AVA GARDNER in the title role (a non-singer dubbed by Eileen Wilson), and gave boyish ROBERT WALKER, then at the height of his earnest charm as a young leading man and produced it on a low-budget scale.Aside from giving viewers a generous look at AVA GARDNER's charms, it does little else but provide tepid entertainment depending on one memorable song for its sole distinction as a musical: "Speak Low".It's passable enough but the one joke theme of the plot whereby a department store mannequin turns into the real life "Venus" when an adoring employee kisses her, is about all there is to the so called book of this musical.If looking at Ava is enough, you'll have plenty of time to do exactly that--while DICK HAYMES, OLGA SAN JUAN and TOM CONWAY do little to stir things up in any other direction. Haymes is wasted on a couple of forgettable songs.Too bad the studio didn't have more faith in transferring the original to the screen including the Kurt Weill score. As it is, it definitely falls far short of the mark.