Proclaiming an adage to the effect that "nothing is too good . . ." International Pictures has sent its researchers bustling off into the early days of the Republic for a talc of the days when John Adams was President of the United States and Philadelphia was something more than a lengthy stop on the Congressional Limited run. The result is a triangle--not the scheme of the researchers, of course--involving a Quaker widow and two clients of her boarding house: the famous, dashing Senator Burr of New York and a shot, clumsy congressman called James Madison. After spirited oratory, the relatively meek Madison inherits the landlady, later to become immortalized in song and story under the somewhat shady epithet of "Dolly."

The fad these days is historical drama, and the motion picture producers aren't forgetting it. Brushing aside any facts that might stand in their way the wily movie magnates have made of Dolly Madison something more than "mine gracious hostess" and daring rescuer of the portrait of George Washington. For, ensconced within the charming structure of Ginger Rogers, she is capable of tap-dancing, being psychoanalized and bewitching young men of good family. She does none of these, however, but there is an omnipresent suspicion that she might, at any moment, go into her routine.

David Niven, a thin, sprightly Englishman, plays Aaron Burr, and although he does not carry a label of the variety commonly employed by political cartoonists, he is easily recognizable as the scoundrel. Burgess Meredith, as "Father of the Constitution" and name-giver to a high school in Brooklyn, does the only reasonable job of the lot.

After Dolly's tribulations, the nation's problems rank first, and if James Madison discusses politics, it's only to create an impression that will lead to a clinch. Expressing doubts and fears for the nation's future. Meredith rushes into Miss Rogers' ample embrace, asserting reel after reel that you just can't mix business with pleasure.