The Women Men Marry

MGM's B-films all had a certain glossy look to their production values and THE WOMEN MEN MARRY is no exception. It even had three writers working on the convoluted script. I won't even begin trying to describe the plot because it takes too many directions from start to finish. Let's just say it's confusing.

GEORGE MURPHY is his usual genial self with a bit of tough guy swagger when needed and JOSEPHINE HUTCHINSON (remember her later on as the sinister housekeeper in NORTH BY NORTHWEST), is the newspaper woman he loves. CLAIRE DODD is his unfaithful wife carrying on with SIDNEY BLACKMER. Naturally, the pair get their comeuppance at the end of the last reel.

It's a programmer that moves swiftly but makes little sense in the plot department. Steering a straighter course toward the predictable ending would have helped but maybe the three writers had something to do with the "too many cooks spoil the broth" kind of conclusion it came to.

Easy to skip this one.

George Murphy stars as a nice but naive reporter. While he's head-over-heels about his wife, he doesn't realize that she's cheating on him--with Murphy's boss!! So, the conniving boss sends Murphy out on assignments to get him out of the way. What the boss doesn't know is that of the dead-end assignments turns out to be an important story. It seems that an odd cult leader named 'Bother Nameless' is a complete crook and Murphy investigates this with a female reporter--a lady who is in love with him but the oblivious Murphy doesn't realize this--or much else! What will become of all this? Tune in and see for yourself.

For a B-movie with a rather modest budget, this is actually a pretty entertaining film due to good writing and a few nice twists here and there. In addition, it ends very well and makes the film worth watching. Solid entertainment.

The Women Men Marry casts George Murphy as a reporter covering a big story about a religious cult headed by John Wray, he's sort of a white version of Father Divine who had those same kind of soup kitchens during the Depression that you see in this film. Unfortunately while Murphy is covering the story with pal Cliff Edwards, his wife Claire Dodd is stepping out with the paper's owner Sidney Blackmer.

Everyone around knows what's going on but poor Murphy. Feeling really bad is Josephine Hutchinson, fellow reporter and former flame.

This MGM product has the look and feel of a Warner Brothers urban drama with both Claire Dodd and Josephine Hutchinson recently being contract players there.

Murphy as always is a nice guy in this film, but also a bit of a dunce. Fortunately Hutchinson settles accounts all around, you have to see how she does it to appreciate it. Let's just say it's Blackmer's intelligence and image that are involved. And Dodd does not get off Scot free either.

The Women Men Marry should have been released with a question mark after the title. One has to wonder sometimes. It's a nicely paced drama from MGM's B picture unit.

... who directed only six features and one MGM short.

This hasn't gotten much airplay on TCM over the years. It's an hour long B drama/action/romance from MGM in 1937 when the studio had a deep enough bench to make OK B pictures like this with a good cast. George Murphy was on his way up, the rest of the cast on the way down or, at best, had seen better days. Yet they did well in this little film.

Bill Raeburn (George Murphy) is a hard charging reporter celebrating his first wedding anniversary with his wife Claire (Claire Dodd). Claire is celebrating, but not with Bill. She's started stepping out and keeping company with Bill's managing editor Walter Wiley (Sidney Blackmer). Wiley manages to keep everything quiet and even manages to give Bill assignments when he wants to see Claire. An opportunity appears for a long respite from Bill popping home when WIley least expects it when a man is killed and Bill suspects the local leader of a religious cult as the killer. Wiley suggests that Bill go undercover along with reporter Jane so that they can get the goods on "Brother Nameless", the cult leader. Complications ensue, many of them unexpected.

So I guess it was a problem at the time with women marrying men for a place to sleep and three square meals a day all the while the men were clueless? Maybe in the Depression. This might have been solved in this case, at least in part by - I dunno - maybe Bill not spending every night after work drinking heavily with fellow newspapermen and instead going home and keeping his wife company?

Note that the cult under investigation, although not an "eastern" type of religion, couldn't possibly be mistaken for a sect of Christianity because the production code would never allow a Christian preacher to be presented as crooked. John Wray, as the villain, and head of the cult does not disappoint with that wild eyed expression of his.

This is a solid little B that is mildly satisfying and even manages to get a message about the death penalty wedged in, with a compelling scene where the reporters are witness to an execution by hanging.

George Murphy stars in this MGM effort with PLATINUM BLONDE overtones about a reporter trying to follow up on a story about a phony spiritualist while not letting his marriage to Virginia Bruce collapse under the beguiling influence of Sidney Blackmer.

Murphy was working on a string of programmers in which he played a reporter in movies with screwball overtones, but this story, while the screwball elements would be stronger at RKO, tries to deal with the issues in a serious fashion. The result is a decent piece with typical MGM gloss.

Some of the best fun is provided by Cliff Edwards in a straight role, and Toby Wing in a fine little turn as a southern-fried ditz. Miss Wing was best known as one of Busby Berkley's chorine in his enormous kaleidoscopic choreographies, and she rarely got a real role, just plenty of publicity.