Without Reservations
Without Reservations is a 1946 RKO Radio Pictures American comedy film directed by Mervyn LeRoy and starring Claudette Colbert, John Wayne and Don DeFore. The film was adapted by Andrew Solt from the novel Thanks, God! I'll Take It From Here by Jane Allen and Mae Livingston. Plot
Successful author Christopher "Kit" Madden is traveling to Los Angeles to work on the film adaptation of her bestselling book Here is Tomorrow, which was supposed to star Cary Grant as the Army Air Forces pilot hero Mark Winston. But she receives word that Grant has withdrawn and the producer now wants an unknown actor to play Winston opposite Lana Turner. Kit, on the train to Hollywood, is writing the producer that she'll accept nobody but Grant to star as Winston when she meets two Marine pilots, captain "Rusty" Thomas and first lieutenant "Dink" Watson, and instantly considers Rusty the best choice to play Winston. But he is dismissive of her book and says it is a political allegory,  and that he does not believe that Grant would refuse Turner's advances for 400 pages. Unsure how he will react if he discovers that she is a famous writer, Kit keeps her identity secret, saying that her name is Kitty Kloch. After she is expelled from the train for drunkenness in a remote prairie town, and the two men join her, they trade Rusty's German war souvenir helmet for a car. They are welcomed at the farm of a large Hispanic family whose daughter showers attention on Rusty, but they flee following a misunderstanding which Madden intentionally causes. When Rusty finally learns Kit's true identity after bailing her out of jail for cashing a check which the hotel believed was under a false identity, he thinks that she has been using him just so that he will appear in the film. However, after weeks pass while she tries to make Rusty jealous by appearing in newspapers with other men, Rusty eventually reaches Hollywood and they resolve their differences. Cast
 Claudette Colbert as Christopher "Kit" Madden
 John Wayne as Capt. "Rusty" Thomas
 Don DeFore as 1st Lt. "Dink" Watson
 Anne Triola as Consuela "Connie" Callaghan
 Phil Brown as soldier
 Frank Puglia as Ortega
 Thurston Hall as Henry Baldwin
 Dona Drake as Dolores Ortega
 Fernando Alvarado as Mexican boy
 Charles Arnt as salesman
 Louella Parsons as herself
 Frank Wilcox as Jack
 Sam McDaniel as Freddy
 Lisa Golm as Alma

Cast notes:
Jack Benny, Dolores Moran, Raymond Burr and Cary Grant make uncredited cameo appearances, as does director Mervyn LeRoy. Production
The film was originally budgeted at $1.1 million and was titled Thanks, God! I'll Take it from Here. The Arrowhead Pictures motion-picture studio shown in the opening shot is the actual RKO Radio Pictures building at 780 Gower Street in Hollywood. Reception
The film returned a profit of $342,000. See also
 John Wayne filmography

References

External links
 
 
 
 

1946 films
1946 comedy films
American comedy films
American black-and-white films
Films scored by Roy Webb
Films about screenwriters
Films based on American novels
Films directed by Mervyn LeRoy
Rail transport films
RKO Pictures films
1940s English-language films
1940s American films