We're Not Married! (1952)

User Rating:

6.5/10   

Director:

Edmund Goulding

Writers:

Nunnally Johnson (screenplay)
Dwight Taylor (adaptation)

Release Date:

17 December 1952 (France)

Genre:

Comedy | Romance

Plot:

In separate stories, five wedded couples learn that they are not legally married.

Plot Keywords:

Soldier | Wedding | Marriage | Bathing Beauties | Illegal Wedding

Cast

Ginger Rogers	...	Ramona Gladwyn
Fred Allen	...	Steven S. 'Steve' Gladwyn
Victor Moore	...	Justice of the Peace Melvin Bush
Marilyn Monroe	...	Annabel Jones Norris
David Wayne	...	Jeff Norris
Eve Arden	...	Katie Woodruff
Paul Douglas	...	Hector C. Woodruff
Eddie Bracken	...	Wilson Boswell 'Willie' Reynolds
Mitzi Gaynor	...	Patricia 'Patsy' Reynolds Fisher
Louis Calhern	...	Frederick C. 'Freddie' Melrose
Zsa Zsa Gabor	...	Eve Melrose (as ZsaZsa Gabor)
James Gleason	...	Duffy
Paul Stewart	...	Attorney Stone
Jane Darwell	...	Mrs. Bush

Runtime:

86 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

USA:Approved (certificate #15704) | Canada:PG (video rating) | Australia:G | Belgium:16 | Finland:S | Sweden:15 | UK:U (video rating) | UK:A (original rating)

Filming Locations:

20th Century Fox Studios - 10201 Pico Blvd., Century City, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

The archive background footage showing New York City's Broadway at night is vintage May-June 1935, judging from the film titles prominently displayed on various theatre marquees.

Goofs:

Continuity: In the scene where Zsa Zsa Gabor is laughing hysterically at how much money she is going to take her husband for, the abrupt cut shows her sullen for about ten seconds before she starts to laugh again.

Quotes:

Ramona Gladwyn: Say one thing about our marriage. If there's such a thing as an un-jackpot, I've hit it!

Movie Connections:

Featured in Hollywood Screen Tests: Take 1 (1999) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Silent Night, Holy Night

A NICE ENOUGH FILM THAT COULD HAVE BEEN BETTER

The chief virtue of this film is the marvelous casting, which could hardly be better. And there's a pleasing variety to the episodes. That said, the edge to the writing and direction is definitely not as keen as one would like. To give just one example of the problem: A letter is sent to each couple, telling them that, through a technicality, they're not really married. In the opening sequence, we hear the letter dictated. At the appropriate point in each installment, the letter is introduced with a special musical theme, and the reader of the letter reacts appropriately. But then, each time, just to make the point completely clear, we are shown a close-up of the identically worded letter. Another example: Paul Douglas dreams of dates with beautiful girls, AND DREAMS, AND DREAMS... Also, though one suspects that Fred Allen had a hand in the writing of his sequence--a parody of radio breakfast couples--here, too, the satire is a little too obvious, their banter being merely a string of not especially clever product plugs (one of them having the miracle ingredient, chicken fat).

Calhern rises above the heavily ironic divorce-lawyer skit, and James Gleason gives one of his finest performances as a hick hustler promoting Marilyn Monroe in a fledgling Mrs. America contest. Had the rest of the film been as sharp as Gleason's well written and well performed characterization, it could have been a classic. The final sequence is the most successful, because of the fine, unaffected performances of Gaynor and Bracken (particularly the latter) and probably also because Goulding was most at home with this simple romance. A point of interest in the film as a whole is how much attitudes about marriage have changed since the film was made.

AMC has shown an amusing deleted sequence with Walter Brennan in its HIDDEN HOLLYWOOD series.