I was long awaiting this film as I love all things Irene Dunne but I must say I was disappointed. "Lady in a Jam" is a strange amalgam of screwball comedy and classic romance. It never seems to gel as either. I kept waiting for the film to pick up pace but it continues on at a slow, lackluster pace. There are the talents of character actors Eugene Pallette and Samuel S. Hinds to boost the film and leading man Patric Knowles is certainly handsome. But the movie just never really interests me. The only thing I can imagine is that Miss Dunne and her cast mates had an overriding interest in roughing it in Arizona, the site of its on location scenes. La Dunne is just as if not more beautiful when she goes "au naturel" as a gold prospector. She just glows. Jane Crawford, the little girl who plays "Strawberry" has the best role in the movie. The wisdom that she spouts to Irene Dunne's character is priceless. Ralph Bellamy as Dunne's hapless corn seed suitor is largely repeating the part he played opposite Miss Dunne in the much superior "The Awful Truth" five years earlier in 1937. I guess this movie would be okay if you're stuck inside on a rainy day or sick in bed with a bad cold.

Irene Dunne is a "Lady in a Jam." She has gone bankrupt and her possessions are being sold in an auction to pay her debts. But she is oblivious to her plight and doesn't take anything serious. Her lawyer or accountant, played by Eugene Palette, has been after her about her inevitable situation. But she has done nothing to help herself, but buy stuff on whims. When Eugene goes to a psychiatrist (Patric Knowles) to get her some help, things get crazy. The situations from then on feel contrived and unrealistic, but at the same time it's bizarre enough to keep you interested, like a car wreck. It's not really that funny, but is only fairly amusing and is a disappointment as one of Irene Dunne's films. She is convinced by Patric to go back home, where her eccentric grandmother and ex-beau (Ralph Bellamy) live. "Lady in a Jam" is only for die-hard Irene Dunne fans, and even those will be only modestly entertained.

While Irene Dunne has played many wacky characters, she'd never played a shrew, not until she played the spoiled rich girl who thinks that just because she has checks, she still has cash. The estate executor (Eugene Palette) thinks she's nuts, so he convinces psycho-analyst Patric Knowles to follow her around to get an analyzation, and what Knowles gets is more than he bargained for. Giving up his practice (where obviously lonely society women make up neurosis just go get into his group sessions),he rescues her from a disgruntled chauffeur who has just abandoned her demanding and ridiculous requests, and ends up escorting her out west where she literally starts digging for gold. After reuniting with feisty, no-nonsense granny Queenie Vassar (known in the mining community as Cactus Kate),she literally meets the mine by falling off a ladder into the muck below. A reunion with old childhood beau Ralph Bellamy threatens Dunne and Knowles from revealing to each other how they really feel, but considering that it's never-get-the-girl Bellamy (doing the same part he did in "The Awful Truth", but with a country and western accent as well as spurs),it's obvious how it's going to turn out.

Animal activists are not going to be pleased when they see Bellamy "wrastlin'" with a calf in a rodeo segment. It's obvious that it's not two actors in a calf costume, but others will find it hysterical. Even though Dunne plays a rather nasty bitch, she's actually a combination of Billie Burke and Katharine Hepburn, and just needs a seriously strong man to cut her down to her shoe size. A diminutive little girl named Strawberry is played by a young actress named Jane Garland, and while she's talented, she's certainly no threat to the MGM Garland who was way over the rainbow while Jane was busy down on the ground collecting dollars from the saps she caught hiding something from the people around them. Such dependable character actors as Charles Lane and Henry O'Neill have smaller roles, but it is the taming of shrew Dunne by the suave Knowles and the pistol packin' mama of Queenie Vassar who will grab your attention.