Movie Review: Redhead (1941)

Synopsis: Playboy Ted Brown is disinherited by his father after another drunken bar fight. Homeless and penniless, Ted gets into a drunken stupor and nearly walks off a cliff before being saved by redhead Dale Carter, who reluctantly takes him to her apartment to sober him up. Realizing Dale is also having financial difficulties, Ted comes up with a plan and convinces her to marry him, believing his father would be so upset by the arrangement, he would pay for them to get divorced. Instead, seeing through the ruse, Ted's dad lets them stay married and even secretly offers Dale $10,000 if she can make Ted grow up. She accepts the offer and has success. There's just one problem; she's falling in love with him.

Who's in it? The movie stars June Lang, Johnny Downs, Eric Blore, Weldon Heyburn and Frank Jaquet.


Review: I've had Redhead in my Amazon Prime Video library for several weeks and finally took the time to watch it this morning. At first, I figured it would be just another predictable rom-com. However, it ended up being surprisingly good.

I hadn't seen June Lang in any other movie up until now but plan to find more because she was fantastic. Dale was beautiful, charismatic and deceptively clever. I loved how she pulled Ted's (Downs) strings without him even realizing it and wasn't afraid to stand up for herself when needed.

Their budding relationship was also very believable. It wasn't love at first sight and there were times when it seemed like Dale couldn't even stand being in the same room with her new husband. Watching their fake marriage gradually progress into a real one was fun, especially when Ted started realizing his full potential and proved he wasn't just a drunken idiot. 

The thing that surprised me most about this movie though is it wasn't as predictable as I thought it would be. I figured their inevitable main conflict would come from him learning about the $10,000 she was offered. I wasn't expecting it to be something a whole lot more dramatic, to the point it seemed unlikely their relationship would survive.

My only real complaint about the movie is the runtime is too short to build on the drama involving Dale's past. All we're given is a headline about it, a brief conversation and that's the end of it. It ultimately had nothing to do with how the movie ended or really anything with the overall plot, making it seem kind of pointless.

Final Opinion: It's an entertaining romantic comedy with a great performance by the leading lady and a plot that is just complicated enough to keep it from being too predictable. I enjoyed watching it and would recommend it.

My Grade: A

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Here are some reviews of movies from the same year:

Movie Review: The Smiling Ghost (1941)

Movie Review: Spooks Run Wild (1941)

Movie Review: Sergeant York (1941)


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