It's amazing how a whole film can be hung on a paper-thin plot. This Warner Brothers comedy is a mostly light-hearted romp that is played with a flair for the absurd, but the cast wisely refrain from going overboard. Credit goes to director Peter Godfrey for reigning it in and keeping things in check.
The basic premise is actually not silly at all and quite plausible. Husband Larry (Zachary Scott) has recently returned from the war, and he's reclaimed his old job of running a successful music business.
While he was away, wife Olivia (Alexis Smith) kept the company going, and did rather well. In fact, she sustained profits and made sure the men had jobs to come back to...she wasn't exactly Rosie the Riveter, but she was still doing her part during the war years, and then some!
Of course now that Larry's back, Olivia has been reassigned to the home. She has two maids that do everything around the house for her. So she spends most of her time lunching with her rich girlfriends or else reading spicy novels. She's bored to tears and would like to return to work at the company.
One day she goes downtown to visit Larry at his office. He has just had a meeting with some staff, telling them he was going to hire a new personal assistant. He has someone in mind for the position, but that someone is definitely not his wife. However, due to a misunderstanding, Olivia is led to believe the new position will be hers. She is ecstatic to learn her days of domestic drudgery are over.
For the time being, Larry lets her believe this, instead of admitting the truth he's promised the assistant job to an old flame (Veda Ann Borg). Larry's ex is now married to someone else (Douglas Kennedy) and the guy suspects an affair might be going on.
It doesn't take long for Olivia to arrive at the same conclusion. Especially when she learns her job was supposed to go to the other woman. She is jealous, but also upset to learn of her husband's patronizing attitude. There's a double standard here- he's willing to hire a married woman, just not her, even though she's the one who kept the company going while Larry was fighting in the Pacific. Not able to deal with Larry's behavior, Olivia announces she wants a divorce and kicks Larry out.
This is where the plot gets a bit haphazard and farcical. We see a series of exhausting stunts that Larry pulls to try and get back into their home and into Olivia's good graces. But she's still angry and hurt. Eventually he is able to convince Olivia that he only has eyes for her and no other woman.
Like Shakespeare would say, it's all much ado about nothing. A job opportunity that is not really a job opportunity. An affair that is non-existent. A broken marriage that is not broken at all. It's amusing fluff that still makes salient points about the roles within a marriage in the postwar era.
As for the meaning of the title, we could interpret it as Larry's last fling with another woman (flirting with the idea of being with his ex again); or as Olivia's last fling with the outside world before she finally accepts her role as a society wife who doesn't need to work because her husband is giving her everything she needs.
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