Married Before Breakfast

When old-timers say that the B-movies of their day were oftentimes superior to the so-called A-movies of today, "Married Before Breakfast" would make a good Exhibit A. This brisk, gloriously loopy, screwball comedy has more laughs than all three "Austin Powers" combined. It's sort of a "Bringing Up Baby"/"After Hours" hybrid with the male in this case (an infectiously optimistic Robert Young) the lovable screwball who turns the world into his own personal circus and everyone he meets into a clown - including gangsters, bus drivers, and of course, police desk sergeants.

He plays a fast-talking inventor whose ship finally comes in to the tune of $250,000 who is as generous with his fortune as many of us dream we would be were we in his shoes. His biggest challenge is a pretty travel agent he's just met (pretty Florence Rice, who has a Ginger Rogers quality about her) who admits that what she really wants to is to be married - presumably to her longtime fiancé (a very young Hugh Marlowe) a bit of a stuffed shirt who has been told by his company that he'll only receive a big promotion - and thus become marriageable - if he can sell an insurance policy to an intractable local milkman. But Young is scheduled to set sail with and marry his snobbish longtime fiancée (June Clayworth) first thing next morning, so he dedicates his last night as a bachelor to convincing the milkman to sign the insurance policy, enabling Marlowe and Rice to marry. But when Rice insists that she tag along to lend a hand, Marlowe's and Clayworth's nights become a living hell, and the movie ascends into screwball comedy heaven on the wings of kindred spirits Young and Rice.

Director Edwin Marin handles the material masterfully, and the two leads have marvelous chemistry, particularly in a brilliantly written scene where they are forced to hide from the cops in a cramped janitor's closet ("Are your eyes really green or is that just the light?" Young asks her) that crackles with sexual tension and reminds one of Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed sharing the phone in "It's a Wonderful Life." "Married Before Breakfast" is a smart, very funny little gem that holds up extremely well 68 years after the fact.

"Married Before Breakfast" has perhaps one of the most contrived and ridiculous plots I've seen in a Hollywood film of the 1930s. In order to enjoy the film, you need to turn off your brain. Otherwise, you can't help but wonder why you're even watching the picture.

The film begins with Tom (Robert Young) demonstrating his latest invention to the board of a razor blade company. It's a lotion that dissolves beards--making shaving unnecessary. They decide to pay him $250,000 just so he WON'T market the cream.

Later, at a dinner party thrown by Tom for his various friends, he gives them all expensive presents. It's nice to see that he's decided to share some of his wealth. However, what happens next makes no sense and makes the movie hard to endure. When a woman from the travel agency interrupts his party to bring him tickets for a honeymoon cruise, Tom INSISTS that he do something nice for the lady. She tells him that her fiancé is trying to sell some milkman an insurance policy--and Tom leaves his party and ignores that he's supposed to be going to meet his new in-laws to-be--all in order to help a total stranger. However, selling the man on the policy ends up being very difficult and the pair spend the evening on all sorts of kooky adventures--including becoming mixed up a mob robbery, being chased by the police and more. At no point does Tom just give up and do what any sane man would do--and that is the biggest problem with the film. Suspension of disbelief is possible to a point. But when people behave irrationally again and again, it's really hard to stick with the film. Plus, who would imagine two people engaged to two other people spending all this time together?! Plus, in Hollywood cliché tradition, you KNOW that by the end of the movie the mismatched pair will decide to marry instead--even though they know NOTHING about each other. Unless they both are insane or suffer from traumatic brain injuries, there's no accounting for this.

If it sounds like I didn't like the film, you are correct. I think Young was way too good for this material and the film went from being fun and quirky to just plain dumb. Not a particularly good film but despite this one of the reviewers said they wanted to see this film again and they were looking for a copy. Well, it is shown periodically on Turner Classic Movies--and I just saw it on this channel.

Inventor Robert Young has just sold one of his inventions for a lot of money, and so can satisfy a lot of wishes. One friend gets a piano. Another get a hundred share in a publicly traded company. And Young will marry his socialite fiancee June Clayworth the next morning and they will honeymoon in Europe. But first, Florence Rice shows up and he offers her a wish. Her fiance, Hugh Marlowe, has to sell an insurance policy to Tom Kennedy, which will gain him a promotion. So Young sets out with her to do that, and gets involved in some odd adventures.

It's a surprisingly sprightly, wide-eyed comedy, not at all the sort of thing that MGM did particularly well, even with the usual gloss available for Metro's roster of character comedians. I attribute it to a well-built script, ably punched up by George Oppenheimer. He had helped found Viking Press in 1925, had four plays on Broadway, ghost-wrote for George S. Kaufman and Robert E. Sherwood, helped write three Marx Brothers movies and ended his career as a drama critic. He died in 1977 at the age of 77.

MARRIED BEFORE BREAKFAST is about one night. Recently rich Tom Wakefield (Robert Young) embarks on an adventure with Kitty Brent (Florence Rice); you see, he has to convince a stubborn milkman to purchase an insurance policy from Kitty's fiancé, Kenneth (Hugh Marlowe). If the milkman purchases the policy, he will be promoted, and he and Kitty can be married.

In order to go on this adventure, Tom must leave his own fiancée in the lurch for a while.

The movie is the night and the adventure. You want Tom and Kitty, both engaged to someone else, to hook up and… I won't give away the ending. But the adventure – with cops, cabbies, gangsters, firemen, and milkmen – is a delight.

Robert Young had been hanging around hollywood for about ten years by this time, and was already the dashing, well dressed figure. Tom invents a cream that makes razors obsolete, and is now a very rich man. he makes all kinds of plans. going to marry the snobby girlfriend, going to take a cruise around the world, going to give all his friends the things they need most. and about halfway through, we take a left turn, and we all go along for the ride. Tom and a new girlfriend (Florence Rice) go gallivanting around the city, and have various adventures. stealing taxis and buses, getting caught up in robberies. it's all silly and over the top, but it's a fun caper from MGM. Directed by Ed Marin, probably best known for directing some of the Maisie films. died quite young at 52.