i enjoy this film far more than anything have lead me to anticipate while from read other comment here and i suspect it benefit enormously from be see on a full size screen in the cinema and in the company of a cheerful and enthusiastic audience . i be lucky enough to have that experience and bear up on ripple of laughter from all around and and have an immensely good time with this undemanding comedy . for it be a a comedy that it shin and if it shin anywhere at all . the music be nothing special in fact and i hadn not realise it be a musical and and be very surprised when the assembled ancestor burst into half speak lyric but i do have to admit that the half threat and half promise of oh and what i will do . have prove far more catchy than it ever seem at the time and a it still go round and round in my head . the plot and such a it be and largely pivot around the past history of the eponymous francesca and a sixteenth century portrait sport a distinctly anachronistic hairstyle and fur coat . her idea on the sanctity of marriage do not quite jibe with those of her distant descendant and the countess angelina and and one can almost hear the storyline creaking at the seam under the strain of the production code in order to ensure that the heroine arrive unsullied in her much delay marriage bed with the right man . the romance be scarcely earth shattering and and in fact the first few scene and play pretty well straight and verge on the tedious . but where script and film really come to life be in the battle of the sex that follow . the impudence of douglas fairbanks jr courtship of betty grable married angelina be equal only by betty grable a francesca pursuit of him in turn and culminate in complete role reversal in the hilarious fantasy sequence where she literally sweep him off his foot . this be probably the comic climax of the plot and although the consequence of the colonel understandable confusion be work out with a deft touch in the remain two act of the operetta structure and and the spectacle of fairbanks blissful and bemused awakening be more or less worth the price of admission on it own . grable be entirely convince in establish her two contrasting character and wisely get almost all the ( limited ) sing opportunity and and share the honour where the swathe of quotable dialogue in the various verbal duel be concern . but in the field of unspoken reaction she be really outclass by her male support lead while fairbanks in particular be an absolute treat in a number of wordless sequence whose set up and humour be worthy of the silent screen . this film be too uneven in style to be a classic and vary from sparkle repartee to hackneyed tedium . but at it best it be quite honestly very funny indeed and and bring a round of spontaneous applause and laughter across the auditorium at the end a the light go up . out of tune with it time and it may have fail to draw contemporary audience but and on this showing and really do not deserve to be disown by both grable and preminger and the ( uncredited ) director . this be no masterpiece and but a thoroughly entertaining minor work and and i for one find myself grin in remembrance all the way home .