Roughly Speaking (1945) watch online HD

Rosalind Russell plays Louise Randall Pierson (someone I've never heard of, but this is based on her autobiography). Directed by Michael Curtiz, it showcases Russell and the often underrated Jack Carson as they face financial feast and famine and an ever-expanding family. Russell is tough, and unapologetic, and Carson is her equal. The film, coming from 1945, has a strange cliff hanging effect, as it ends with the beginning of World War II, and you wonder what will happen next. At the time it must have hit home for a lot of families with men (and women) fighting overseas. But I would strongly recommend it as a movie to watch before the films "Since You Went Away", with Claudette Colbert which chronicles life at home during the war, and "Best Years of Their Lives", which is probably the best coming-home-from-war film ever made. The three would make a great sequential view of life from the turn of the century to post WWII America. 8.5 out of 10.

Louise Randall Pierson lived a wonderful life. Mrs. Pierson was a woman ahead of her times. Her biggest accomplishment was a total dedication to her family. The film, based on her own autobiography, clearly shows why this woman was so unique. Michael Curtiz directed with his usual flair.

Louise Randall Pierson went from a childhood of privilege to almost poverty after her father died when she was still a girl. Louise pursues a career as a typist and joins a firm where no women had been employed. Her friendship with Alice Abbott brings her to New Haven where she meets and marries a man that never amounts to anything, but who leaves her for another woman without any qualms, leaving Louise to do whatever she can with four small children.

At this point in her life, she meets Harold Pierson, a lovable man who had big visions, but who never was able to have the recognition he deserved. Louise and Harold were made for one another. Their love will get them through some rough patches, but they manage to keep their spirits and give all the children careers of their own.

Rosalind Russell makes this film come alive. Ms. Russell was such a lovable actress that no matter what she appeared in, she always managed to please us. Jack Carson, an underrated actor, was perfect as her second husband Harold Pierson. Mr. Carson and Ms. Russell seem to be having a great time while making the movie. Ann Doran is the loyal friend Alice and Ann Todd plays the young Louise.

"Roughly Speaking" is one of the most positive films that came out of Hollywood in the forties because it shows us a determined woman with a great heart who raises above of what life gave her.

Rosalind Russell was just right for this movie. Bette was a great actress, but I cannot imagine her as Auntie Mame. Same with the heroin of Roughly Speaking. Russell played it just right, with a touch of laughter and a touch of pathos. It is about a woman who lives through: Divorce, polio, the Depression, one monetary failure after another, and finally seeing her sons off to fight in WWII. However, you see that it makes her family stronger, they learn to fight thru their problems and come out better for it. It is this movie that made me fall in love with Jack Carson. Jack Carson never really made it as a top, top star. In fact in most of his movies he played a buffoon or a jerk. But in Rougly Speaking he plays the kind of man most women wish we were married to. It is my opinion that he pretty much played himself. I recommend it: It comes on TCM regularly, if you have not seen it you are in for a real treat. Watch out for Roughly Speaking you will love it.

A long but pleasantly sentimental journey. This delightfully odd-ball film is based on the real-life story of one Louise Randall Pierson, an eccentric free-spirited woman who was ahead of her time in her thinking and actions. This lady didn't need the assistance of women's liberation movement! The film opens in 1912 and ends during WWII. In between are many amusing episodes. Louise's first failed marriage, her daughter who suffered infantile paralysis and her introduction to her future second husband (Jack Carson) - in a fish pond while dressed up for a costume party linger in the memory. Rosalind Russell is superb as Ms Randall-Pierson, and although the film is a mite long at 117 minutes, it is expertly directed by Michael Curtiz, the dramatic and comical aspects being cleverly balanced. Highly recommended as a fine example of a forgotten fine movie to remember.

Long after this movie's release, the term "Slice of Life" was coined to describe films such as this. I dislike labels, and I especially tend to dislike modern films for which this term was coined. However, it seems like an apt label for this movie which I paradoxically love. (This comment provides as much insight into film history as it does into my own character.) I admit to being a sentimentalist. Consequently Slice of Life films from the thirties to the late forties usually appeal to me far more than later films. A lot of Slice of Life movies since the late forties seem to me to be rather pointless, rather tragic - or worse - both! Like any art form, films express the ethos of the culture in which they are made. I sometimes lament the passing of the society that produced Slice of Life films from the thirties to the late forties...

Roughly Speaking is a film that is full of tragic events, but none seem pointless or even tragic. In that sense it is moralistic. As their dialog during the film's fadeout clearly indicates, Rosalind Russell and Jack Carson seem made for each other in their twin indomitable spirits. That spirit imbues this entire film with optimism. If the film seems at times to be overly sentimental (even maudlin to some), I think it is because today most people think of that kind of optimism, itself, as overly sentimental. Raised by parents who experienced the Great Depression and WWII, I can imagine a time when such optimism was not deemed overly sentimental or unbelievable. This film epitomizes that time and those people, and it speaks to my heart and soul. It inspires me and makes me yearn today for such a milieu, in a retrospective way that was not possible for audiences at the time of the film's release. So, for me this movie has grown in stature and improved with age.

Russell is one of those actresses who is capable of delivering a performance that evokes laughter and yet tugs at your heartstrings. Carson is not usually seen in roles that offer him the opportunity to portray such nuanced characters. Here he is, and he shines. He was one of the era's great "second bananas." When I see him in a film such as this or Mildred Pierce, I regret that he wasn't given more meaty, starring roles. In this movie Russell is the strength and Carson is the vision - they are a great team, and I enjoyed seeing them grow old together.

The ending does come rather abruptly. Yet for those who lived through WWII, there is enough foreshadowing for the rest of the story to be imagined in a general sense. Hardly any family that sent as many sons to the war was blessed to see them all return home. This family had seen plenty of hardship, and would, no doubt, see more. But it would overcome...

This doesn't seem overly sentimental to me - just optimistic.

Having lived throughout the depression and the Presidency of F D R, I was pleasantly surprised when I happened upon Roughly Speaking on T C M last week. Somehow,in all these years of movie going and viewing,I never had a clue about this moving film.

The author expertly weaves into the plot glimpses of those bygone days.. The early airplanes,the the struggle to ride out the lean times.

The staid mother's daughter having fought the same crippling disease as had the President,the stock market crash the early war years.

Her heart wrenching scene watching all three sons go off to war.

Although the movie depicted the triumph over adversity women of the thirties/forties achieved, the young women of today are the daughters and grand daughters of the multi taskers of my mother's day

I wholeheartedly recommend this movie to all American women. Edouarto.

Until I happened to catch it on the Turner Classic Movies channel, I'd never heard of Roughly Speaking. It turns out to be a charming and genuinely funny romantic comedy, set during the Roaring Twenties, the Great Depression, and the 1939-40 New York World's Fair. Roz Russell and Jack Carson, as a married couple raising a family, keep us wondering what crazy scheme they will cook up next in order to survive hard times. Their optimism is contagious. This family laughs a lot, especially when everything is going wrong, and it's real laughter--the kind that makes me laugh along with them. The ending seemed kind of abrupt, but apart from that, I found this movie great fun and often quite touching.

This was a real surprise. I found it hard to switch channels once I started watching the movie. The dialogue was witting and the whole movie charming. The movements between segments of the movie were abrupt but everything else I liked a lot.

ROUGHLY SPEAKING combines laughter and bathos with good doses of Americana, telling the story of a free-spirited woman (Rosalind Russell) whose positive outlook helps her through hard times after her marriage to stuffy Donald Woods collapses. In a short amount of time, she finds another like spirit in Jack Carson, who has great chemistry with Russell and turns in one of his most heartfelt performances.

The story covers a lot of ground so the coverage may seem a bit episodic at times, but in all it's smoothly directed by Michael Curtiz, who gets a good balance of tears, laughter and sentiment from the script. Russell has a tendency to get into her "Auntie Mame" mode at times, but overall her performance is splendid, especially in the final farewell scenes at the train station where she has to see her sons leaving for war service.

The good supporting cast includes Robert Arthur, Robert Hutton, Mona Freeman and Andrea King.

Although it has several dramatic sequences, the overall feeling is that you've witnessed a "good feeling" kind of movie with a certain kind of nostalgic charm.

A wonderful Rosalind Russell vehicle with Jack Carson in fine form as her 2nd husband.

It tells us of a woman's determination to survive this world-despite deaths in the family, a heel of a husband, (Donald Woods),illness, and the Great Depression.

Russell throws her usual zest for this type of commanding woman in the film and succeeds. Though out of his league as the usual grade B actor, Woods succeeds here in the part of the first husband, who walks out on Russell after 10 years of marriage, 4 children and a life of hard times.

The film is definitely a slice of Americana and the idea of hard work and accomplishment. It also very well deals with adversity just as things are going so well. Isn't that so true of life itself? That's why the film succeeds and is quite memorable.

When Robert Osborne said, "This is a real gem," I decided to watch... he doesn't lie. Being a big Rosalind Russell fan since "Auntie Mame," I'm both surprised and delighted that I did! In these early days, there was no such thing as "women's lib" or women's rights, or anything of the kind. That's why I believe this film is a truly ground breaking work of classic film. Unlike the "Pollyannish" movies of this era that tried to make light of those Depression era times with things like big MGM musicals that tried to sugar coat the difficulties of those days, this film takes on a myriad of historical troubles in a way that is both heartbreaking and incredibly optimistic (kudos, incidentally, to a superb star turn by Jack Carson in another wonderful characterization). It never preaches or feels sorry for itself—much like the female protagonist—but continually moves forward without getting bogged down in self-pity, which the characters certainly had the right to. It doesn't pull any punches. I suppose the best way to describe it is: "A tale of towering highs and gut wrenching lows, with the indomitable spirit of man aways conquering adversity." But a far better way of learning the many important lesson this entertaining film has to offer is simply by watching it.

The life story of a nonentity. Incredibly, Hollywood let this amateur write the script herself (something they wouldn't let even a pro like William Faulkner do) and the script is just that - amateurish. True it has something, authenticity, drive, even wit and sparkle and Mike Curtiz makes it all go by so fast for the first hour or so; but then the interest of the director seems to die with the script and, oddly enough, the disappearance of Donald Woods.

Woods is a mechanical and unconvincing actor, far too old for an undergraduate, but Curtiz spikes up his scenes with elaborate camera movement (the dolly shot through the snow in the proposal scene) and effects (repetition of the record scratching out "Rock-a-Bye Baby") - maybe he felt Woods needed help. He sure did!

But when Carson makes his belated entrance, Curtiz is content to let the camera run for long takes on such incredibly boring material as Jack's simulation of a vacuum cleaner salesman.

After this low point, the script even starts to repeat some of the sharp one-liners from the first half of the film. It all ends, inconclusively and somewhat downbeat, in a railroad station as the camera dollies away from Russell and Carson through the scurrying crowds (we suspect that is Harry Hayden's voice on the loudspeaker) to The End title.

Mind you, the film doesn't lack production values. A fortune has been poured into it. It has sets and atmosphere, good acting (the principals are their usual selves, but the script also has parts for a goodly parade of character actors including Alan Hale (one scene only) and some believable kids, but most of all an original Steiner score consisting mostly of generously and richly repeated excerpts from By The Light of the Silvery Moon and Bulldog Bulldog. Also We're in the Money, Oh You Beautiful Doll, It Had to be You.

Oddly enough, it's the downbeat, very ordinarily directed scenes that stay in the memory, like the Pierson's losing their shirts because of a glut of roses.

Fortunately, Walker's moody black-and-white photography overcomes and dampens Miss Russell's relentlessly jolly, perky performance (about which even Donald Woods justifiably complains).

Some big, fun hollywood names in this one, once we get there. This opens with the funeral of "Dad", and we see a bit of him in flashbacks. Rosalind Russell is "Louise", who grows up with Mother and sis. The awesome Alan Hale is in here for about a minute, as "Lew", the big boss. (Hale died at 57, a couple years after this, but wow, what a career.) Louise is a firecracker, and her (first) husband doesn't like it, although they DID manage to raise a litter of kids before he bailed. THEN... Louise met Harold (Jack Carson), and it was Love at first sight. A biography that moves right along. Apparently the son Frank was a writer/director, and had won an oscar for best screenplay. Perfect casting with Russell, as she was also the fast talking reporter in "His Girl Friday". It's pretty good. A little dated, but its fun to watch Russell and Carson do their stuff. Directed by the "pro", Michael Curtiz, about the same time as Mildred Pierce, Life with Father, and Night and Day. Oddly enough, this was written by Louise Pierson, so clearly this is the story of her own life!

I thought I'd seen everything Curtiz had done. TCM snuck this one in late this afternoon. Maybe it should be an 8pm feature around a minor holiday. It's that good.

With great chemistry two of my favorites, Russell and Carson, create a memorable depiction of married life thru the first half of the 20th century, while manoeuvring their ups and downs, rearing children and finally within view of the '39 NY World's Fair, as the Polish Pavilion shuts down, personally struggle with the onslaught of WWII; lots o' emotional swings supported by numerous others in the movie, all of whom deliver.

It's too bad Russell and Carson didn't pair up for more films. They work together as well as any of their other pairings.

Based on an autobiography by Louise Randall Pierson, "Roughly Speaking" is a wonderful story about life and love, success and failure, adventure and risk, faith and family, sacrifice and perseverance. It's also the story of a determined woman who will work hard, take chances, fight for her own and love – all with great intensity.

Pierson wrote the book of her story in 1943, and this movie was made in 1945. The story is mostly in the first four decades of the 20th century. Rosalind Russell plays Pierson perfectly. Donald Woods plays her first husband, Rodney Crane. They have four children in quick succession – Barbara, born Jan. 16, 1913; John, born Dec. 30, 1913; Rodney Jr., born May 21, 1915; and Louise Jr., born Nov. 22, 1916. Rodney falls for a younger woman through his work and he and Louse divorce.

A year later she meets Harold Pierson, played by Jack Carson. He is a perfect match for this headstrong but committed woman. They marry and have one more child together – Frank, born May 12, 1925. This is an excellent performance by Carson. Through many ups and downs, they find deep love for one another, and raise a close-knit family. The various supporting roles are very well done. The film ends with Harold and Louise seeing their three sons off to war in 1942.

I don't know how the life story of Louise and Harold Pierson ended. I can imagine that it had a happy and upbeat ending. One of their children, Frank, became a journalist for Time and Life magazines and then a scriptwriter for movies and TV. He then directed movies and produced TV programs. He wrote for several notable TV programs and movies, including "Cat Ballou" and "Cool Hand Luke." He won an Oscar for "Dog Day Afternoon." He served as president of the Writers Guild of America and was president (2001 to 2005) of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). He died in 2012 at age 87.

Roughly Speaking was a pleasant little surprise when I caught it recently, like a lot of others I had never heard of it before. Russell is her always competent self and there is a bit of her future role of Auntie Mame in this performance. I have come to appreciate Jack Carson much more than I used to now that I am seeing a larger body of his work thanks to TCM and he is terrific in this playing against his usual type. IMHO it's his best performance at Warner's, just squeaking out his in The Hard Way.

There is chemistry galore between Roz and Jack and that's what makes the picture work. They do indeed seem to be enjoying it and without Carson this could have been a boring weeper. Supporting cast is excellent, particularly the great Ray Collins. The only exception is Robert Hutton as the Son. Mr. Hutton was always hampered by the fact that he couldn't act.

I think it rates a solid 7.5 Lastly, is it me, or does this film decidedly not feel like a Michael Curtiz helmed picture? Someone else tried to contrast it to Mildred Pierce which is wholly unfair...they are distinctly different types of films.

As is often the case, I disagree that this can be described as a comedy. You know...all those funny situations -- divorce, children getting polio, and so forth. Rather, it's about some individuals who struggle through life by being able to see the joy and humor in it.

How true this story is, I don't know, but it is at least based on some real people. That's the recipe for nostalgia, and it comes across nicely.

It's only been in the past several years, as a result of broadcasts on TCM, that I realized how many interesting films Rosaland Russell made; I always thought of her more as a stage actress. Russell often brought life to roles that were just a little bit different than the typical lead in films. She does that here.

Jack Carson, in films and on television, could come across as very likable or as a blow-hard. Here he is former as the man who comes to the rescue of a mother with several children who has fallen upon hard times, even though she did it with a stiff upper lip. BTW, Carson doesn't come into the film until almost halfway through it. Carson was always best when he underplayed a role.

A couple of actors have small but nice roles here -- Donald Woods (as husband #1), Alan Hale, Sr., and Ray Collins.

Life wasn't always good to these folks (is it ever?), but you could admire their..."pluck".

Pleasant, nostalgic look at the last century up to WWII.

Roughly Speaking is a Warner Brothers picture that has a feel-good quality to it. And in some ways it functions as propaganda, convincing the average viewer that life is full of ups and downs and that she can muster the courage to continue, despite the odds.

Rosalind Russell is the star of this film, and her character learns the hard way about men- marriage-and-love. Jack Carson is the big lug she identifies as her main squeeze. Their undeniable chemistry leads one to wonder why they hadn't been paired on screen before.

Not so delicately but roughly speaking the script could have withstood some revisions. There is an amusing vacuum cleaner demonstration scene, but some of the comic episodes do not exactly lead anywhere. And just what is the theme of this movie? That a woman can find love again? Or that her family must brace for difficulty and war?

Granted, this movie is somewhat entertaining. Russell & Carson perform admirably, but there is something definitely missing in the screenplay. Perhaps depth of character. I never feel that I really understand the people portrayed in the film. The same year, the fantastic "Mildred Pierce" was released, also directed by Curtiz, and that film provides its leads with some of the "meatiest" roles of that year. Carson excels in that film, whereas his "Speaking" character just appears to drift in a one-note fashion, from one set piece to the next.

Russell's "Louise" is stalwart, to be sure, but also somewhat blindly perky, and hardly an early women's rights activist, as some would declare.

I suggest renting both "Pierce" and "Speaking" as a Curtiz double-feature, and witness just how essential strong source material is, in producing a truly successful film.