The Marriage Playground

... birth control, not so much. And thus the dilemma of this film. At a seaside resort Martin Boyne (Fredric March) meets 17 year old Judith Wheater (Mary Brian) as she is trying to corral her younger brothers and sisters. There are at least half a dozen of them, I had trouble counting them all. It turns out Martin knows the parents - Cliff and Joyce Wheater (Huntley Gorden and Lilyan Tashman). But he didn't know that they had previously divorced, remarried others, then divorced and remarried again, and in each union there were children. And now the Wheaters are arguing again and the many Wheater kids do not want to be separated when the Wheater parents inevitably divorce.

Martin agrees to get all of the parties together - and that includes all of the ex-spouses, their spouses, and future Wheater spouses, and try to figure out a way for all of the kids to stay together. But it is futile as they start sniping at each other and eventually lose interest in the entire conversation as they have a polo match to go to.

The complicating factor is that Judith is falling in love with the older Martin, but Martin has a dragon lady of a fiancee to which he is devoted. On Judith's side, though, is the fact that she and Martin are the only real adults in the room.

It appears Judith has spent her entire life caring for her younger siblings and has not even been properly schooled, because early on she writes Martin a note and misspells common words badly. The film makes a point of showing you this, so it must have meant something.

This was a unique concept for a film - I don't think I've seen anything quite like it before - parents of means who act like children having lots of actual children and emotionally neglecting all of them. But it does suffer from some common early talkie problems such as scenes that go on too long and the necessity of having a rather static camera. What is great about it is seeing the furnishings, clothing, and manners of the well to do at the end of the roaring 20s. Also, even a little of Kay Francis and Lilyan Tashman go a long way.

Huntley Gordon and Lilyan Tashman are out traveling the world and wrangling, leaving Mary Brian to raise her five step-brothers and sister by herself. A chance meeting with Frederic March leads him to promise to get all the parents, step-parents, prospective step-parents and former step-parents together to hash things out; the basic issue being that none of the children wish to be separated from the other. Meanwhile, Miss Brian develops a passion for March, who has his own fiancee to consider.

There are lots of fine performers in this, including among the children Mitzi Green, Phillippe de Lacy, and Anita Louise, and among the adults Kay Francis and Seena Owen. I'm afraid that the varying relations among the adults reached the point of bafflement for me, arousing a sense of frustration that might be parallel to those felt by the children. One of the good points about pre-code movies is that they were not afraid to tackle the issues of divorce, not only the occasional need for it, but the problems raised by it when so-called adults marry, have children, get divorced, and repeat, again and again, as if they and they alone must deal with the consequences. The rules of dramatic construction call for a neat ending, and there is one. Reality, alas, is not so simple.

It's still early days for talkies, which means that holdovers from the silents, like Miss Brian, sound unnatural with their lines, while newcomers like March are just fine.

Here are the quickest 75 minutes of your life. A delightful pre-code cocktail recipe. Take three couples (add gin and tonic), their several divorces and the seven children/stepchildren of their intermarriages and blend thoroughly, and you have a mixture a too-young-to-believe Frederic March will try to straighten out.

Whew! That said, let me straighten out a possibly intentional preconception. These sophisticated couples, with an early flirting reference, seem to be playing to the naughty implication of the title. You'll comprehend the title once you've met the kids, because they are the heart of this film. Now a cast including Frederic March, Lilyan Tashman, Kay Francis and Seena Owens giving great performances can't be upstaged, right? Well this batch is the best I've seen. They steal every scene and are given lines which mirror just what you're thinking. And they deliver them like bullets. It's timed like some successful stage play where the comedy has been closely honed in front of an audience. March is doing his job just keeping a straight face!

It all works thanks to a wide open Mary Brian as the oldest (17) of the kids. Her full throttle approach to the role locks all the elements together. She has to work vigorously to keep stability in the kids custodial situation. Indeed, spying on her charges, she discovers them playing Divorce Court.

Director Lothar Mendes loaded the film with brilliant touches. Mary Brian as Judy has a full, puffy coiffure while the other females have close, short hairstyles. The eternally effeminate William Austin's on hand to be Kay Francis' "big, strong (rich) man". Mitzi Green teaches him what its like to be a father, making him her pony. The children interface with adults on adult terms, playing them like violins. I won't disclose some delicious scenes as they should be yours to discover. Have fun!

Big fan of the early talking pictures because of their historical purpose in the history of film. I love the shots of the beach and the clothes these people wear everyday as well as the furniture of the time. This film however besides its historical importance quiet dull to my eyes. What is intresting is the actors and actress of the early days of the talking picture and how their careers formed later on in the 30s-40s Mary Brian who plays judy stared in films with cary grant and james cagney. Lilyan Tashman is very intresting she starred in 3 lost pictures such as "no, no nanette" (1930), "gold diggers of broadway" (1929). And "the cat creeps" (1930). She was popular in her day and she passed in 1934. Fredric March would go on the be in "the best years of our lives" (1946). A young Anita Louise appears in the film and was famous to play along side Shirley temple. And even appeared in another sought after lost film called "4 Devils" (1928).

"The Marriage Playground" is an interesting film. While it is a Pre-Code film (since it came out before July, 1934), its sentiments are both Pre-Code AND Production Code at the same time. While Production Code films almost never talked about divorce in this sanitized version of Hollywood, poor behavior was nearly always punished. In the case of "The Marriage Playground", it does talk about divorce, like many Pre-Code films, it also seems to condemn it...especially when it comes to its effect on children....making it strongly in line with the virtues of the Production Code era. As for me, I loved its message...as too often in divorces, the kids seem to get the short end of it and the film points this out vividly.

Martin (Frederic March) meets a nice young lady, Judy (Mary Brian), and it taken with her. She is quite upset because yet again, her parents are in the midst of a divorce...and this means that the family will be ripped apart. Some of the kids will go with their father and some with their mother, as the couple have already been divorced in the past. Judy is angry and hurt, because she's the oldest and the caretaker for her sibs...many of which she might not see again. She has seen it before and loathes to see it again, so she tries to get Martin to help her scheme to keep her parents married.

For 1929, the sound quality of this film is pretty good, though compared to later talkies, it does sound a bit flat and the characters tend to stay in one place due to the limitations of early sound films. This makes the film a bit more stilted than 1930 and later films, but it's not terribly so.

So is the film any good? Well, considering that it stars March, it can't be bad! I appreciated its message about selfish parents and terrible parenting...there aren't that many films which dare to tackle this. The ending is a bit easy to predict, but considering it's a nice happy ending, I didn't mind. Overall, for 1929, it's a swell picture.