After twenty years in front of a camera, Loretta Young walked out of her contract with Twentieth Century Fox and became a freelance star. Darryl Zanuck blackballed her as a result, which lead to months without any script offers. She began her independent film career in Columbia studio, because Harry Cohn was one filmmaker brazen enough to defy Zanuck. Loretta made two pictures: The Doctor Takes a Wife (with Ray Milland) and He Stayed for Breakfast (with Melvyn Douglas). Both pictures were critical and commercial successes and established her facility with light comedy.