The Devil And Miss Jones (1941)

Description

The great Sam Wood (Pride of the Yankees) directs this socially conscientious classic comedy. John P. Merrick (Charles Coburn), the world’s richest man, gets word that someone is trying to unionize a department store he owns. To thwart this blatant act of democracy, Merrick changes his name and takes a menial job at the store to catch the union activists without detection. Once he himself is subjected to the humiliating treatment by the department supervisor, Hooper (Edmund Gwenn), Merrick starts to wise up—and soften up. Jean Arthur (The More the Merrier) plays Mary Jones, a shoe saleswoman who becomes Coburn’s coworker and liaison to the world of the common man. Miss Jones is in love with the head of the union activists played by Robert Cummings (Saboteur) and Merrick himself falls in love with co-worker, Elizabeth Ellis (Spring Byington). The double-date sequence at Coney Island immortalizes the infamous beach in its masses of flesh and general bedlam, the great William Cameron Menzies (Gone with the Wind) created the extravagant detail-rich sets, which are the perfect complements to the witty script by Norman Krasna (White Christmas). Nominated for two Academy Awards® — Best Original Screenplay (Krasna) and Best Supporting Actor (Coburn).