La mariée célibataire

Sparkling and funny romantic comedy about a wife who has written an article for insurance companies on "steps to preserve a marriage" - her idea is for the married couple to remain celibate for the first three months of marriage thus giving them a tighter bond or something, before starting on a family. By coincidence she is about to be married herself, so decides to try out this radical concept on her new husband, much to his chagrin. Hubby agrees thinking she will "change her mind", then spends all his time trying to seduce his wife into bed by using such tricks as champagne (Wife: "I can drink glasses and glasses of champagne and never feel a thing" - oops there goes one of his schemes), mood music, etc.

This film is highly amusing, great light entertainment. Rosalind Russell and Melvyn Douglas are so good in this, portraying the newly married couple. By the way, Rosalind gets to wear lots of gorgeous dresses and jewelry in this film - oh what pins! There is a very funny dinner party scene where, for business reasons Melvyn Douglas and his business partners have misled a party guest and his wife, a couple with many children of their own, to believe that Rosalind's character is pregnant. Thus follows all kinds of comedy in pursuit of keeping this couple from spilling the beans to her that they believe she is going to have a baby - and, of course, she is constantly jumping around and lifting heavy chairs and the like. Lots of fun.

Before the opening credits begin to role, one knows that the plot premise of this comedy is not going to work. A three-month trial period of living together without making love is the hot idea of Ann Winters. She's one of the top brass of an insurance firm that has been losing its shirt from so many divorces. It never explains how the divorce rate affects the company, but it's most likely because of policies being cancelled with divorces. So, she thinks that if couples marry and abstain from sex for three months, they will get to know one another better, and there will be fewer divorces. (And more insurance policies won't be canceled?)

Ann wants to test her theory with her own marriage. When her fiancé, Tice Collins, returns from three months away on a mining venture in South America, she springs the plan on him. At first, he's outraged (a very funny scene in the courtroom for her sister and brother-in-law, Ruth and Tom Howland's divorce hearing). But then, his company attorney, Harry Bertrand, tells him to go for it, get married, and then romance Ann into giving up on the plan and being a normal newly married couple.

The humor begins to roll after Ann and Tice tie the knot in "This Thing Called Love." Rosalind Russell and Melvyn Douglas play the leads and the film has a good supporting cast that include Lee J. Cobb, Binnie Barnes, Don Beddoe, and Allyn Joslyn. It's not a riotous comedy but it has a mix of funny dialog, antics and situations - most of the latter.

As an aside, the basis for Ann's plan got me to wondering about the marriage and divorce situation in 1940; and how it would compare to more recent times. I couldn't find data for marriages that end in under one year. But some data is maintained by the U. S. Census bureau and other sources. One way to consider the divorce picture is the ratio of the numbers of divorces to marriages. In 1940, there were 264,200 divorces in the U. S. and 1,595,879 marriages. That's a ratio of 1 to 6. But, in 2010, the ratio of divorces to marriages was 1 to 2 (estimated 1,055,120 divorces to 2,096,000 marriages). And that's with millions more people cohabiting before marriage and/or never marrying.

One sad note about the cast is that Gloria Dickson, who plays Florence Bertrand, would die at age 27. She was 23 when this movie was released in January 1941. She struggled with three marriages and had an alcohol problem. She died in a Hollywood house fire in 1945.

The silly idea for this film plot provides for a silly movie. It's doesn't rate with the best of the stars' comedies by any means. But, with Russell and Douglas, it's a film that most movie buffs should enjoy. Here are some favorite lines.

Ruth Howland (Leona Maricle), Ann's sister, before the divorce judge, "Your honor, my husband is a psychiatrist. All of his patients are crazy. He spends most of his time trying to keep nuts from making faces at each other. He began to handle me with the same effect." Tom Howland (Don Beddoe), "That's a lie."

Tice Collins, "Ann, once a piece of mining machinery hit me over the head. That's just the way I feel now." Ann Winters, "That's the most beautiful speech."

Tice Collins, "Darling, I've waited all my life for you." Ann, "Darling, I didn't wait for you. I went out and found you."

Tice Collins, after the phone rings, "If Mr. Bell had to invent something, why couldn't it have been a cigar lighter. They never work."

Tice Collings, "From now on, let's be jealous... hot-tempered... suspicious... irrational - but human. In other words, let's just be an average couple, and live like one."

Tice Collins, "I travel 6,000 miles by foot, by dog cart, by jackass, by plane by ship. I couldn't' get her fast enough. And what do I find? A shoulder that'd make dry ice feel like a, well, like a bed warmer."

Harry Bertrand, "Either you've had too much to drink, or I haven't had enough."

Harry Bertrand, "Listen to me, you prairie pixie. You spent five years up to your hips in mud, snakes and jungle, and yet when we're that close to success, you throw everything out of the window. And what for?" Tice Collins, "For love. Ever heart of it?" Harry, "Yes - before I was married."

Ruth Howland; Ann, you seemed sane enough as a child." What happened to you? What sort of lightning struck you?

Just saw this on the big screen at Cinecon and I was floored by how much I loved it. The entire audience was laughing aloud and really entertained. The chemistry between Melvyn and Rosalind is like that of William and Myrna in "The Thin Man" series. Melvyn is so good at physical comedy and shtick and I have always liked him but I came away from this with a crush on him. Rosalind has never been more luminous and lovely and her costumes are beautiful. I was told this film rarely is shown due to a copyrighting issue but man, if you ever get the chance, see it. Its a classy, charming screwball that will give any Spencer Tracy- Katherine Hepburn outing a run for its money. If this came out on DVD tomorrow, I would buy it.

Statistician Rosalind Russell is a statistician for an insurance company. She's just published an article in the firm's magazine about how to improve the survival of marriages by starting off with three months of celibacy. When she marries mining engineer Melvin Douglas, he reluctantly agrees to give it a try, despite misgivings. His friend Allyn Joslyn convinces him he can sweet-talk her out of the idea, despite Joslyn's marriage to Gloria Dickson falling apart. Meanwhile, Douglas has to get a loan from South American millionaire Lee J. Cobb, by convincing him that he and Miss Russell are expecting.

It's one of those screwball comedies in which the wife comes up with a screwball idea and the husband has to live with it; after her success in His Girl Friday, Columbia liked to hire her back for these nitwit comedies. And a nitwit comedy it is, despite Alexander Hall directing, with a series of further misconstructions delaying matters further, despite Miss Russell showing up in something frilly in reel four. All the players try very hard, and while they manage the comedy timing very well, there isn't very much to do. Binnie Barnes shows up with poison oak dermatitis, and Sig Arno is given very little to do as the couple's manservant.

Celibate three months ann and tice(?) trial marriage fruend tekks him to accept she proposes 3 months gordon--other suitor NOT quetzelcoatl painful dinner party scene--bad often folks' beahaviors are difficult to understand--suck as strippng miss campbell--tries too hard

Ann (Rosalind Russell) is a rich and successful business woman who wants to get married but is afraid to really commit since she's seen other marriages fail. So, she comes up with a novel idea...to marry a man in name only....or at least for three months. That way if they don't get along they can just go their separate ways. Well, it's not surprising that her boyfriend, Tice (Melvyn Douglas) isn't thrilled with this arrangement, but his friend convinces him to just go along with her and once married she'll abandon this dopey scheme. Well, not surprisingly, it doesn't go how either of them planned.

This film's weakest point is the script. The actors are quite nice but a few times they're made to repeat a few silly lines and the dinner party scene, in particular, is pretty bad. But fortunately, the good far outweighs the bad and overall it's well worth seeing even if it isn't one of Douglas' best.