review for An Innocent Affair on AllMovie

While they may not be as well-remembered as such screen teams as Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn, Madeleine Carroll and Fred MacMurray starred together in five films, of which An Innocent Affair is the last. The duo definitely had a chemistry, and the way they work together is just about the only thing that makes An Innocent Affair watchable. Affair so badly wants to be a carefree, madcap screwball comedy, the kind in which witty remarks drop blithely out of lips in between ridiculous plot convolutions that are totally manufactured but somehow have the feeling of kismet about them. But what Affair wants to be and what it actually is are two very different things entirely. Under Lloyd Bacon's leaden direction and with Lou Breslow and Joseph Hoffman's tedious screenplay, Affair is a terribly labored affair. This kind of comedy simply has to soar if it's going to work, but Affair can't work up enough steam to get even an inch off the ground. The dialogue is trite and the characters are simply boring; without the distraction of bright repartee and engaging characters, the clunky mechanical nature of the plot is all too obvious. The two stars do everything they can, assisted by Rita Johnson, Louise Allbritton and a nice bit by Alan Mowbray, but the game cast can only make so much difference.