The Affairs of Martha

I've been tracking down films written by Isobel Lennart, so although I wasn't completely surprised by how charming this film is, most viewers will be since it's so obscure. This brief B-comedy opens with many splendid characters and zany complications, reminiscent of a Preston Sturges film without quite hitting that height. (There's even a "hep" kid sister that reminds me of Diana Lynn in Sturges' masterpiece "Miracle of Morgan's Creek," although I think that came out a couple of years later. In fact, "Martha" even has a drunken overnight marriage!) The comic actors--Spring Byington, Margaret Hamilton, Marjorie Main, etc.--give full-throttle readings in even brief roles, down to glances and gestures. What I perceive as typically Lennart touches: the opening "union" meetings of the maids and the matrons, who each vow to "stick together" ("One for one and all for all!" says the Swedish maid); and the appearance of the lonely, oddly touching and philosophical beach worker (shades of the character Pop in "Skirts Ahoy"). And Martha's motives in writing her book, also typically, are not selfish; she's not writing a scandalous expose as they fear but an expression of how much she likes them. Interesting that it's about a misunderstood woman writer! It's an early script for her and she co-wrote it, which may explain why there are easy stock characters and selfish negative ones (like the fiancee) who are shut out of the community instead of being recuperated.

A maid's tell-all book threatens to undo an upper-class neighborhood, even as one of the sons and the maid are secretly wed.

Looks like big-budget MGM was responding to wartime audiences with this little programmer. It's decent enough, but can't sustain its comedic air for the 70-minute runtime. That's perhaps because director Dassin's instincts are really not comedic. Instead, he developed into one of the top noir directors of the period, e.g. Brute Force (1947), Thieves Highway (1949). Here, the comedic mood bounces around too often to sustain the format. Then too, writer Lennart has some serious class issues to work into the proceedings.

Nonetheless, it's a dynamite supporting cast, with a number of skillful comedic actors, including Main, Nelson, Joslyn, Weidler et al. Now, I like Richard Carlson, particularly when he's battling space aliens or communists, but a comedy actor, he ain't. Here, he's too stiff to complement the mood, unlike Hunt, for example. Overall, I can't help thinking a longer screenplay giving more time to support players like Main and Hamilton would have helped. But then, a longer runtime would have moved the movie out of the wartime double-bill status.

All in all, the movie components don't combine well enough to make a memorable whole, despite some genuinely promising moments.

I wonder if those guardians of our country at the House Un American Activities Committee took a careful look for a subversive message in The Affairs Of Martha before they blacklisted Jules Dassin. After all the story of household staffs meeting to confront their employers sure sounds subversive to me.

That's only part of the film and the film is a bright and innocuous comedy from MGM's B picture unit. Marsha Hunt stars as the tell all maid who has kept one secret, the fact she's married her boss's son Richard Carlson before he went off on a polar expedition.

A whole galaxy of familiar character players is what makes this film special. It gets a bit silly at times, but it's easy to take.

So you'd think she wrote a regular Peyton Place.

"The Affairs of Martha" (1942) is a good illustration of how even a dream cast and solid directing cannot transform a weak script into anything more than a very average production. Imagine having the luxury of Marsha Hunt as your leading lady and female love interest; surround her with some of the best comic character actors of the era (Virginia Weidler, Marjorie Main, Margaret Hamilton, Spring Byington, and Grady Sutton); finally throw in Richard Carlson's best ever performance. Any movie buff would expect quite a treat from this ensemble.

In writer Isobel Lennart's defense, Weidler was miscast; what are hilarious lines coming from a precocious 11-year-old (for which the part was written and for which Weidler would have been perfect a few years earlier) just don't work coming from a 15-year-old actress who looks even older. Following this film with several similar disasters Weidler retired from the business.

Contrary to the plot summary, young housekeeper Martha Linddstrom's soon to be published book is not the real focus of the film. It is a romantic comedy much like "Bringing Up Baby", and could have benefited from a few of that film's screwball elements. Jeff Sommerfield (Carlson) returns home from a long absence with his new fiancée Sylvia in tow. Jeff does not reckon on the continued presence of Martha (Marsha Hunt) in his parent's household. Just prior to his departure he married his parent's housekeeper at the conclusion of a drunken bender. Because she is genuinely in love with him Martha did not follow through on her promise to have the marriage annulled but instead has worked to improve herself in night school and has just completed a book lauding his family.

Oddly, coming from a misunderstood woman writer and centered on a misunderstood woman writer, Lennart takes a lot of cheap shots at the third side of the screenplay's love triangle. Academic Sylvia Norwood (Francis Drake) is beautiful, intellectual, accomplished, and very well-adjusted. This is not the sterile Alice Swallow character in "Bringing Up Baby". Sylvia must serve as the film's villainess, which not only fails to generate any audience concern (Jeff would benefit greatly from being paired with either woman), it totally undermines the working woman political subtext of the production.

Along with Carlson's performance there are several very good things about "The Affairs of Martha". Marsha Hunt (as always) is excellent in both melodramatic and comedic moments; its just too bad her character as written is so bland. For my money Hunt is the Hollywood's all-time most underrated actress and I've enjoyed her each time I've seen her. Grady Sutton has the film's best moment early in the film in a nonverbal sequence at the breakfast table; unfortunately his character is not developed further Given the film's very short running length and its failure to develop many of the most amusing secondary characters it is likely that much was trimmed out during the editing process.

There is a clever dinner table scene near the end of the film in which Jeff is emotionally ranting against writers and publishers; a demonstration that further alienates Martha. Eventually you understand that it is a ploy to delay the announcement of his engagement to Sylvia but it works as a very nice bit of misdirection.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

Martha, you sly puss. All those secrets! All those guys! What a juggling act.

Wolfercooler? Not sure of the spelling, but since it was made up on the quick, guess it really doesn't matter. Great stuff. Anytime you see Miranda (Virginia Weidler) by any other name, you know there's going to be fun. Poor Sylvia. She would have her troubles snagging one, and now that she finally does … Darn. Wonder where she went from there? Oh well, there are a lot of men that need managing out there.

We had all kinds of merry maids in this - a German wonder, the pert little minx, a couple of war horses like Ms. Main and even the wicked witch from Oz ("maid" Guinevere) (Margaret Hamilton).

Didn't Mrs. Jacel (Irene Cooper) resemble Hedy Lamarr, sitting there at the breakfast table in her peignoir? And who sort of slid out of the room when hubby mentions they didn't have any spicy secrets to worry about.

And Barry Nelson, just trying to make good here. His specialty seemed to be tugging at apron strings. Notice that?

"Mother knows best" says father Melville Cooper to daughter as Mom Byington feigns a fainting spell to withdraw from a dinner party disaster. Not long after, she really does faint with the next one. (Even the hostess with the mostest has her limits!) Great scene there around the table. Sara Haden, always interesting, very persistent in trying to get to the bottom of this telltale book business. Three-fourths are trying to open up the subject, with one-fourth trying to close it down. One has to wonder if there was any successful digestion that evening. (Didn't you hate to see all those squabs go to waste like that!)

How about the blonde trio with the revolving heads.

Why didn't that family have a snappy little dog getting underfoot in the middle of all the muddles? The only thing missing