A bit underrated

This is no masterpiece, and she just wasn't Audrey Hepburn, but I think this film is somewhat unfairly maligned. It's one of those drawing room comedies, characteristic of its time, even if the best of its genre had come two decades prior.

It's very talky and trite, and you get the sense that the men act too intimate with her even though they've just met, and even though the movie itself feels slow. But all the same, it flows well enough and feels believable enough.

McNamara did a good enough job with this material to be nominated in a weak year. She herself was quoted as saying that her nomination was ridiculous, compared to the likes of Shirley Booth and Julie Harris the year before. For 1953, the Academy could have gone with a powerhouse like Ethel Merman in Call Me Madam, Jean Simmons in The Actress, an unconventional choice like Kathryn Grayson, so unusually charismatic in Kiss Me Kate, or even Marilyn Monroe or Jane Russell in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. I haven't seen The Actress or Call Me Madam, but McNamara was charming and did well enough with the relatively one-note theatrical dialogue that I don't begrudge her the nomination.

I also saw McNamara in Three Coins in the Fountain, and, apart from some gorgeous cinematography in the first few shots and the pretty title song, now THAT was a real dud.