I'll dissent a bit from the other reviews here of this film. Make no mistake (or in this case misteak), this is not a great film by any stretch of the imagination. For the first 12-15 minutes of watching it I pretty much decided I would pan the film. But then I began to give it some credit for something -- that every once in a while a film comes along that is truly different. And, while not great, this film is different. How many movies do you see about a pregnant woman's need to eat steak? That's the premise of the film. Van Johnson is a professor, Janet Leigh his wife. They are poor living on a college professor's meager salary, and she's pregnant and needs to eat nutritious meat, which they can't afford. Along comes Johnson's father (Louis Calhern), who just happens to be one of Texas' largest cattle ranchers. His plotting to get his son back to the ranch backfires into a meat price war. And of course, they all live happily ever after, but only after some constant bickering by father and son. It is a comedy, but the bickering of father trying to control son is a little on the serious side, as well.
Interestingly, Johnson's real-life car accident a decade earlier left his forehead badly scarred, and those scars are very evident in this picture. Johnson does okay here, although this is not one of his better performances. Janet Leigh is enjoyable. As is one of my favorite character actors -- Louis Calhern; perhaps not quite convincing as a cattle baron, although a few years earlier he had played Buffalo Bill in "Anne Get Your Gun". Walter Slezak is okay as the butcher, but this is not one of his better roles. Gene Lockhart, not usually one of my favorites, actually does pretty well as the Dean of the college.
Again, this is no great picture, but it's decent, if a bit shallow. Worth a watch, but I doubt it will show up on many DVD shelves.
Interestingly, Johnson's real-life car accident a decade earlier left his forehead badly scarred, and those scars are very evident in this picture. Johnson does okay here, although this is not one of his better performances. Janet Leigh is enjoyable. As is one of my favorite character actors -- Louis Calhern; perhaps not quite convincing as a cattle baron, although a few years earlier he had played Buffalo Bill in "Anne Get Your Gun". Walter Slezak is okay as the butcher, but this is not one of his better roles. Gene Lockhart, not usually one of my favorites, actually does pretty well as the Dean of the college.
Again, this is no great picture, but it's decent, if a bit shallow. Worth a watch, but I doubt it will show up on many DVD shelves.