The Marriage Playground

The other three reviews thus far seem to be addressing a different film altogether. The pacing here is funereal, the actors don't act their lines, they speak them, slowly and haltingly, as if we were at a first rehearsal of a high school drama performance. There is no talent to speak of, even Kay Francis is subdued. Fredric March is embarrassingly bad. Some of the facial expressions are truly laughable.

I have not yet read the novel, THE CHILDREN, from which this is derived, but I doubt it was a comedy. Irresponsible playboy/girl rich adults behaving like children and leaving a wake of seven stepchildren in their entourage, constantly being torn apart, as the adults switch marriage partners, yearning to remain together as siblings - hardly stuff of comedy - perhaps it was a further indication of the distorted times during which the film was made that it was adapted in this fashion.

This was remade in France in 1990 under its original title, but the film is not available on DVD for comparison.

A real chore to sit through and a colossal bore to boot.

... 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.

"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.

I am eager to see all of Fredric March's pre-1940 films. Some of them are brilliant. Others are just OK, but his performance is always top-notch, regardless of the material. Or so I thought. If this were the first time someone was seeing March, they would never know he was a professional actor.

Mary Brian plays March's college friend's daughter. A series of marriages and divorces has left a large collection of children in her primary care. She is only seventeen. After a whacky meeting on the beach, the young girl and the kids are all smitten with March. However, March's character is engaged to a widow he has allegedly loved for a long time. You see where this is going. The age difference is supposed to seem acceptable, though March initially protests, and viewers are left to see which woman he finally chooses to marry.

If you want to see young Mitzi Green, with her loud mouth, or young Anita Louise, you might enjoy this film. Lilyan Tashman always turned in a good performance when playing a villain. The delightful Kay Francis is less than enjoyable here though. Mary Brian is probably the best performer in the cast, but I didn't like her character. March's devotion to the children seems unnatural, and I couldn't see him as a believable husband to either woman. I came in wanting to like this film, but after viewing it, I don't understand the good reviews it got at the time.

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).