For the Love of Mary is a 1948 American romantic comedy film directed by Frederick de Cordova and starring Deanna Durbin, Edmond O'Brien, Don Taylor, and Jeffrey Lynn.

[1][2] Written by Oscar Brodney, the film is about a young woman who takes a job at the White House as a switchboard operator and soon receives help with her love life from Supreme Court justices and the President of the United States.

[3] Mary Peppertree starts a new job as a telephone switchboard operator at the White House, where her father Timothy has been working as a guard for many years.

A former Supreme Court telephone operator, Mary takes her first call from David Paxton, an ichthyologist who insists on speaking to the President about a political issue involving a small Pacific island.

Their conversation about her hard day at the White House fending off calls from the "fish peddler" is overheard by David, also in the restaurant, who then assures Mary that he will speak to the President, despite her interference.

The next morning at the White House gate, David apologizes for his actions the night before, and attempts to bribe Mary with flowers and candy, only to have them thrown back into his face.

When Mary hiccups into the phone, the President sends his executive secretary, Harvey Elwood, to check on her condition and offers her a paper bag to breathe into.

After meeting with the President's advisors, David fashions a Senate resolution for the American annexation of his island if Phillip and Tom are given appointments far from Washington, and he and Gustav are made United States citizens.

In October 1941 Joe Pasternak, who produced ten movies with Durbin at Universal, announced he wanted to make Washington Girl at MGM, based on a story by Ruth Finney, about a telephone operator at the White House.

"[18] Crowther explained: For no one could possibly have cooked up such a horribly-quaint and coy romance in which not only the President of the United States but four Supreme Court Justices play cupid to a telephone girl without deliberately intending to make those gentlemen appear terrific dopes.

The film also fails on an entertainment level, with "painful attempts at humor" and "flat jokes" about the "woefully lax and quixotic operations of White House officialdom.

"[19] Butler saw the film as an unsuccessful attempt at creating a romantic screwball comedy of the classic type, lacking the necessary keen eye on detail, organization, character, and wit.

The main "gimmick", of the President of the United States getting personally involved in straightening out the love life of a switchboard operator, is "obnoxiously cute and simply too unbelievable.

"[19] Butler does applaud de Cordova's direction and the acting—Harry Davenport is especially good as a Supreme Court justice—but it is not enough to salvage a poor script and unbelievable story.