One Touch Of Venus (1948, dvd)

Synopsis: The 1987 romantic comedy Mannequin stole this plot, and Columbia did something similar in 1947 with Down to Earth starring Rita Hayworth, but this is the movie where love goddess Ava Gardner, once voted the most glamorous woman of all time by her adoring fans, plays the love goddess, Venus, and comes to life for 24 hours on a window dresser's kiss.

Gardner is fabulous: sexy, alluring, warm and womanly, and more than a match for feeble, miscast Robert Walker (Strangers on a Train), whose marital and drinking problems caused trouble during the shooting. Originally, this was a novel by F Anstey (Vice Versa), and it came to the screen via a Broadway show, thankfully retaining some of the songs from that incarnation, including the lovely Speak Low by Kurt Weill and Ogden Nash, magically performed by the great Dick Haymes.

The direction by William A Seiter isn't up to much, though, and neither are the production values (why no colour?), and perhaps the subject is a little too whimsical for this postwar period. But Gardner makes this tosh wonderfully watchable, and how the camera loves her.

Cast:Robert Walker, Ava Gardner
Runtime: 82 min