Marriage Is a Private Affair

First let me say that Lana Turner certainly looks beautiful in her role as a woman who has no idea what she wants. Well, she does like to be pursued. And occasionally she likes the idea of marriage.

This film is listed under the comedy genre. The few forays into the realm of comedy do not make this a comedy any more than her hallucinatory scenes of past lovers makes this a science fiction film. Actually, the film cannot decide what it wants to be. The swing from lighthearted banter to life-altering urgency and back prevents the viewer from fully investing emotionally in the perils of Theo (Ms. Turner).

The only thing to recommend this film are the beautiful people who populate it. And the photography and fashion that frame them.

The script must have been worked and reworked a hundred times by numerous scribes. It is so disjointed that in the end it leaves you wondering what it was all about. Yes, there is the neat "there's no place like home"-type attempt to put a neat ribbon on it all, but it rings hollow. Just look at the pretty people and smile.

The product of a broken home who has been raised by her cynical, much-married mother, Lana Turner enters into the kind of hasty wartime marriage everyone in 1944 was being warned against. And the man she chooses is stable, romantic and old-fashioned. Uh-oh. This picture shows how 'women's films' and 'soap operas' could sometimes tackle modern life's most important moral and ethical situations. Turner's character wants to commit herself to her marriage but realizes she hasn't the experience or the emotional tools to be a good wife, nor does she have the example of her parents' happy marriage to follow. MARRIAGE IS A PRIVATE AFFAIR explores that dilemma and does it very entertainingly. Too bad Lana didn't take the film's theme to heart!

As the newlyweds, Turner and John Hodiak have a wonderful sensuality and seeming spontaneity together during the scenes that take place on their honeymoon as they are first getting to know each other. And the movie presents a very interesting moral complication when it introduces the threesome that are Hodiak's closest friends from childhood. Consisting of a married couple and their male pal, Hodiak idealizes them but Turner recognizes the sexual tensions that will eventually threaten that marriage. For those who assume that '40s films never dealt with sexual issues, this picture might be a refreshing surprise, especially since it came from MGM, Hollywood's most conservative studio.

And for those who generally think of Lana Turner's late films when you think of her at all, her work in this and other early '40s pictures might surprise you too. Looking ravishingly pretty with a lush but trim body, in these years Turner actually seems to look at and listen to her fellow actors, and speaks her lines with expression and emotion, a real contrast to her sluggish, lazy late work.

Lana Turner, in one of her earliest movies where she takes center stage and top billing, stars in this comedy-drama about marriage being nobody's business but the couple's. James Craig loves her, even though she marries John Hodiak. This does start off talking silly, as John proposes to her and on their honeymoon, but it's to the movie's credit and intelligence that it plays out very well in its treatment of its characters and make them very relate-able to the audience, the other characters being John's friends Sissy and Ted, a married couple, and Joe, played by Hugh Marlowe. Lana's mother (played by Natalie Shafer, who was Mrs. Howell from Gilligan's Island) was in and out of marriages all the time and did not provide Lana with a good role model. But, the viewer is left with the message that you should work in your own garden, before tending to someone else's, that you should go into it, knowing who you are and that all decisions have consequences. "Marriage is a Private Affair" is one of Lana's best unknown movies and needs to be discovered by more people today.

As the somewhat Margaret Dumont-ish title would indicate this is a classic chick flic with acting and dialogue pitched squarely at the lady's magazine crowd; you know, lots of gasps, raised eyebrows, meaningful gazes and lines like "If you lie to me about the maple leaf, Tom, then..." However, if you can get past the foregoing, as well as the Hays Office BS (Double beds on a friggin HONEYMOON?) and Robert Z Leonard's rather placid direction, then there are some pleasures to be had. Not the least among them (gee, I'm starting to write like this film!) is Lana Turner's better than expected performance in the lead, especially in the scenes with her wayward, matrimony loving mom, played to comedic perfection by Natalie Schaefer about twenty years before her three hour cruise (By the way, RIP Dawn Welles. That leaves only Tina Louise on the island) and one of the more well staged disastrous dinner parties you'll see on celluloid. Give it a C plus. PS...It took about three days to get Bronislau Kaper's voluble, intrusive score outa my head.

Lana Turner was a true movie star, and she again proves it in this vehicle, "Marriage is a Private Affair," from 1944, which stars Lana with John Hodiak and James Craig. The Taylors, the Gables et al. were off fighting the war.

Turner plays a young woman, Theo, extremely popular with the men, who marries a soldier (Hodiak) whom she barely knows, Lieutenant Tom West. Nevertheless, they are happy at first, and have a son. But Tom's work keeps him busy for hours on end, and Theo starts to miss all the attention she once had. She also misses being perceived as a young beauty; now she's a married woman with a child. Because Theo comes from a family where her mother (Natalie Schaefer) was much married and divorced, Theo begins to worry that she's not cut out for marriage, especially when an old beau (Braig) puts the moves on her, and she's tempted.

"Marriage is a Private Affair" is overly long, and the script isn't much, but it was no doubt relevant in wartime when women married men in haste who then went overseas.

This film is really all Lana, absolutely gorgeous, with her beautiful face, figure, and soft speaking voice, a vivacious, flirtatious, and sexy woman who still had elements of a young girl. She really had something special. Later in her life, the energy drained from her, and the scandals, the smoking, drinking, and sun damage all took effect, even if she remained beautiful. But the effervescence was gone.

Back in the late '30s and into the '40s, Lana's star presence could - and did - elevate the most tedious of films. Later on, with the big sunglasses, fur coat and head covered with a scarf, she did, too, but for different reasons. This film is pleasant enough - without her, it wouldn't be worth watching. I highly recommend it if you're not familiar with the young Lana.