And So They Were Married

Widowed Melvyn Douglas and son Jackie Moran (in his screen debut) show up at a ski resort just before Christmas. So do divorcee Mary Astor and daughter Edith Fellows. Adults wrangle and then fall in love, to the chagrin of the children, who decide to sabotage the romance.

This wan romantic comedy is not without its attractions, particularly the adult leads. However, the comedy set pieces don't seem to come off. At the beginning, for example, because of excessive snowfall, these are the only guests in a place fully staffed for hundreds. Activity directors and waiter descend on them in their efforts to be doing their jobs, and we are supposed to find this funny. I found it annoying.

Mine, of course, may well be a minority reaction, but there is something about the dogged delivery of lines, situations, and changes of heart that results in a purely mechanical movie.

Both Astor and Douglas had been in films for years by this time, so we know it'll be a good film. And with Donald Meek, there should be some good antics coming ahead. Too bad they didn't give him a larger part. Blake (Douglas) and Farnham (Astor), and Farnham's daughter are the only guests in a hotel locked in by snow. SO much talking.. this one MUST have started out as a play. According to IMDb, the snow scenes were done at Donner Pass. That is just west of Reno, about 7 hours north of Burbank, so that would have made for a fun winter outing for the actors. Mr. Snirley and Miss Peabody are hotel employees, determined to accompany the only two guests every second, much to their (and OUR !) annoyance. Then Blake's son shows up, and the rest of the film is about the plotting between the two children. Kind of a fun note to hear them talk about esperanto, which has actually been around since 1887. It's okay. No big surprises. Mildly entertaining. Pretty whitewashed and bland for the film code. Astor and Douglas would also make "There's always a Woman" together, as well as a couple television episodes. Directed by Elliott Nugent.

At the beginning, Ms. Astor is delightful. Her performance seems pitched somewhere between the lovely one in "Dodsworth" and the brilliant one a few years later in "The Great Lie." She throws her head back and laughs. She speaks in that unusual mezzo. I started out with high hopes.

Melvyn Douglas, too, was one of the best comic actors of the time. He does OK. And small roles are well cast, as with Porter Hall as the owner of the lodge where most of the movie takes place.

But alas! It degenerates into a movie primarily about children we're supposed to find adorable. I love children, make no mistake. But this is icky. Edith Fellows, who was good in other movies, is unappealing as Astor's daughter. The boy isn't much better.

It isn't the fault of the child actors, though. It's the script. It's forced, almost desperate.

And so we find the prolific and versatile Ms. Astor in one of her lesser outings.

Melvyn Douglas was a marvelous actor who somehow never quite made it to the top ranks on acting....but he was terrific in just about everything he did...even crap like "And So They Were Married". He gives it his best and is quite nice in the film but the terribly flawed and clichéd story is beyond anyone's ability to fix!

When the film begins, the audience soon realizes that Stephen (Douglas) and Edith (Mary Astor) will fall in love. Why? Because they hate each other and realistically they haven't a prayer of falling in love. But, as the movie is filled with clichés, they soon find themselves in love at the mountain resort they are both visiting with their respective children. Joel has brought his son to spend Christmas there, as he's a widower. And, Edith has brought her daughter and she recently got divorced. The romance is working just fine for a few days, as the resort is snowed in and the two kids are stuck in town. But once they arrive, the brats decide they don't like each other and if their parents marry, life will be awful...so even though they hate each other, they agree to work together to make their parents miserable. This is a sad excuse for a plot, as it's so selfish and nasty...and some of their behaviors (such destroying the Christmas tree and many of the presents of the other hotel guests) isn't funny...it's just cruel. This cruelness definitely was a bad decision in the film....and it's sad because although they are hateful, the two young actors playing the kids actually did a great job with what they were given. It could have been a bit like "The Parent Trap" but was sunk due to selfishness, too many clichés and a few characters who were more caricatures than real, believable people.

And So They Were Married (Elliot Nugent, 1936) is a fun romantic comedy set over the Christmas season, with divorcée Mary Astor falling for widower Melvyn Douglas at a snowbound hotel as their boisterous children (Edith Fellows and Jackie Moran) plot to keep them apart. Though the production values are a bit low - and there's little utilisation of the festive setting - the kids are great value and Douglas shows the deft comic touch and ability to subtly evoke emotion that saw him spread his screen success to stage and the small screen. There's a lovely moment where he shrugs off his broken heart by ruffling his son's hair and murmuring: "I just need a little time, son."

The film is more realistic, and therefore less escapist, than Columbia's usual sparkly fare, as it effectively paraphrases the difficulties of single parenthood. There's a slight over-reliance on visual humour and the title is shamefully generic, but you can't fail to enjoy a film that features both Donald Meek as an exasperated hotel manager and Douglas Scott (young Hindley in Wyler's Wuthering Heights), scene-stealing as a breakaway mummy's boy. Once you've explored the more obvious genre gems from Columbia (It Happened One Night, A Night to Remember, Together Again), it's worth giving this one a go.