The Voice of the Turtle (1947 Irving Rapper)

Woody Allen: "I liked The Voice of the Turtle very much. That was the kind of thing I grew up on, that kind of sophisticated comedy. I don't consider it a great play, by any means but it is the kind of thing that molded my image of the theatre and New York, of a kind of Upper East Side apartment that had a restaurant downstairs that you'd go to right near it, go back upstairs, and sophisticated women wanting to be actresses in this case and a guy who was on leave from the army, and who was going to bed with whom. It just played right into my fantasy of what life in New York would be. I was impressed with it because Eve Arden was in it and I always loved Eve Arden." (She was cast for the Countess part in Purple Rose of Cairo but her husband died and she pulled out.) 

Yes, in this adaptation of John Van Druten's play, we find ourselves on 63rd and Lexington, the Upper East Side, indeed. Actress Eve Arden finds herself double-booked and dumps her boyfriend Ronald Reagan on her friend and fellow actress Eleanor Parker (good; Detective Story, Caged, Between Two Worlds), who is getting over a bad break-up and has promised herself she won't fall in love again. They hang out, he sleeps over, they have dinner, she calls and he doesn't answer the phone, she has to make sure their glasses are exactly even, falls out of her dress - you know, just a typical weekend. It's great fun.

There's some of that priceless waiter dialogue from a diner - 'diner lingo' it's called. I think I heard 'one wimpy, and make it cry' ('make it cry' is authentic - it means 'add onions'), 'two eggs, looking up' and 'cheese on rye with a side of shoes' (possibly misheard).

And Arden's character is actually that of a selfish bitch, and as such, it's a more than usually meaty role for her. With Wayne Morris, Kent Smith, John Emery, Erskine Sanford and John Holland. Lit by Sol Polito, playful music from Max Steiner. Produced by Charles Hoffman for Warners.

John Emery and Eleanor Parker, with Katharine Cornell and John Barrymore behind