Long neglected by film historians, Mitchell Leisen and his oeuvre have undergone a reexamination in the last decade and his reputation as a director has been raised somewhat. While he is not on par with contemporaries like Lubitsch or Sturges, he did helm a handful of motion pictures that have withstood the test of time. In the 1930s, he excelled at screwball comedies and in the 40s with so-called "women's pictures". By the waning days of his career, though, Leisen had directed more than a few oddities and although he proved a capable craftsman for the small screen, his earlier work was