No Time for Comedy

A playwright's attempt at serious drama nearly brings the curtain down on his marriage in this "deliciously wistful comedy" (The Warner Bros. Story) starring James Stewart and Rosalind Russell. When Minnesota newsman Gaylord Esterbrook (Stewart) is summoned to New York to rewrite his first play, Broadway star Linda Paige (Russell) finds him a breath of fresh air and asks for his hand in marriage. But after collaborating with his wife on four comic hits, Gaylord decides the time has come to get serious. Spending his days with a man-hunting muse (Genevieve Tobin) who insists he write dramas instead, Gaylord works on the play at Linda's expense, two tragedies in the making. Based on the hit play starring Katharine Cornell and Laurence Olivier, No Time For Comedy was Stewart and Russell's only pairing, made possible when David O. Selznick traded Warner Bros. his option on Stewart for Olivia de Havilland's services on Gone With the Wind.

• comedy