They Wanted to Marry

An amusing runaway-heiress-and-newspaperman comedy (think IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT without Capra, Riskin, great actors or Harry Cohn), this second feature times in at pretty close to an hour and seems to be all right. Perpetual lunk Gordon Jones is fine as the eccentric newspaper photographer, but Betty Furness can't speak her overwritten lines with any conviction. Indeed, the entire movie seems a bit overwritten, possibly to give the leads some interesting characters they couldn't manage on their own. Witticisms such as "I know a good seven letter word for good-bye: GOODBYE" abound.

As usual, the fun in these movies is supplied by the supporting cast, including Henry Kolker, Franklin Pangborn and E.E. Clive. It will give you something to do while the plot is lumbering along its inevitable course.

This short film -- one hour -- had a delightfully implausible plot and a few meaningless loose ends, but it provided the laughs. Betty Furness played Sheila Hunter very well, an independent-minded heiress who falls for the "nut," Jim Tyler (Gordon Jones). The story moved nicely, and Jones was so goofy that you knew the conflicts wouldn't last. (In an hour, they couldn't.)

E.E. Clive as Stiles the Butler is delightful, as is the young Patsy Parson's as the granddaughter.

On an evening for a laugh, it's well worth a look. My wife and I enjoyed it.

Jim (Gordon Jones) is a very successful newspaper photographer because he always seems to be able to get great candid shots. His latest assignment involves sneaking into a swanky society wedding and capturing a few pictures of a reclusive millionaire. He is discovered and runs...and ends up hiding in the bedroom of the millionaire's daughter, Sheila (Betty Furness). But instead of turning him in to her father's private detectives, she hides him as she finds Jim to be a nice alternative to the society guys she usually meets. Soon the pair fall in love though her father is NOT happy. What's next? See the film.

I really enjoyed this film, though I disliked one portion near the end...when Sheila gets angry with Jim and breaks things off. This really didn't make much sense and it felt more like a plot device than a logical and believable plot twist. Fortunately, the rest of the film is quite good and likable...with clever dialog and a lot of fun.

In yet another film about a dizzy heiress, Betty Furness is the heiress who has a whirlwind romance with a newspaperman. Unlike It Happened One Night, the grand daddy of all these heiress films, the newspaperman here is a photographer.

Gordon Jones plays the photographer and he like predecessor Johnny Mack Brown of the Crimson Tide of Alabama moved on to the cinema. Jones who is best remembered for playing Mike the cop in the Abbott&Costello show in the Fifties was slim and trim playing at first young juvenile leading men before he put on a little beef and did comic parts. Later on it was discovered that Jones had a really good slow burn technique and a comically explosive temper that was put to good use in films and television culminating in his Abbott&Costello part.

None of that is on display here, Jones gets an assignment to photograph the wedding of the daughter of a most reclusive millionaire Henry Kolker. He does that, but also falls for the younger daughter Furness. Of course they have a rocky road, but true love will triumph in the end as it always did back then.

Jones and Furness are kind of colorless here which is another reason that Jones moved on to comedy. But Henry Kolker, Franklin Pangborn as a flustered house detective and E.E. Clive as Kolker's much put upon butler really give They Wanted To Marry a lot of verve.