Just Across the Street

Just Across the Street
Directed by	Joseph Pevney
Written by	Roswell Rogers Joel Malone
Produced by	Leonard Goldstein
Starring	Ann Sheridan John Lund Cecil Kellaway
Cinematography	Maury Gertsman
Edited by	Virgil W. Vogel
Color process	Black and white
Production company	Universal Pictures
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release dates	June 15, 1952 (1952-06-15) (Los Angeles) June 27, 1952 (1952-06-27) (New York)
Running time	79 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Just Across the Street is a 1952 American comedy film directed by Joseph Pevney and starring Ann Sheridan, John Lund and Cecil Kellaway. It was produced and distributed by Universal Pictures.

Plot

Henrietta Smith applies for a job as a social secretary for the wealthy Medford family and is mistaken for the spoiled daughter of the house by young plumber Fred Newcombe. Although Fred thinks that she is wealthy, he hires Henrietta as his secretary, believing that she needs to prove useful. Henrietta maintains the ruse, even allowing Fred to drive her to the wealthy section of town and then catching a bus to her real home. Mr. Medford suspects that his wife is having a secret affair with Fred, and Mrs. Medford harbors a similar suspicion about her husband and Henrietta.

Cast

• Ann Sheridan as Henrietta Smith
• John Lund as Fred Newcombe
• Robert Keith as Walter Medford
• Cecil Kellaway as Pop Smith
• Harvey Lembeck as Al
• Natalie Schafer as Gertrude Medford
• Alan Mowbray as Davis
• Billie Bird as Pearl
• George Eldredge as John Ballanger

Reception

In a contemporary review for The New York Times, critic Howard Thompson called the film "a pretty fair example of how an inexpensive film with a small cast can be made to bounce good-naturedly off the assembly line with no harm done" and wrote: "[T]his Leonard Goldstein production for Universal-International, starring Ann Sheridan and John Lund, unwinds with such unassuming drollery that even some arch contrivances and a messy windup don't quite spoil the flavor of a rather unexpected broth. [D]irector Joseph Pevney has paced the action and humor with disarming unpretentiousness. But the loud helter-skelter climax is so crammed with slamming doors and coy coincidence that the film becomes more of a wise accident than a bright surprise. All the same, it has its moments."

External links

• Just Across the Street at IMDb
• Just Across the Street at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films
• Just Across the Street at the TCM Movie Database (archived)