A Vênus de Carne

I Married a Woman was made in 1958 at the height of George Gobel's career. George is playing his usual henpecked character from television with an overbearing boss, an interfering mother-in-law, a dissatisfied advertising client and a few other things that make his life an adventure. But if you were married to the statuesque Diana Dors, somehow a lot of those problems would seem small. They don't for Mr. Gobel.

Gobel was a very big name in television at this time with a Saturday night variety show for NBC at 10:00 pm. I still remember from my youth the booming TV announcer for NBC announcing their fabulous Saturday night line up of COMO, CAESAR, GOBEL. It was sure superior to NBC's line up now.

Watching George Gobel for me is a piece of nostalgia. And looking at the shapely Diana Dors in a tight dress is reason enough itself to watch this film. Gobel's humor doesn't quite translate to the big screen however. You get the feeling you're watching one long skit from his old TV show.

One of the gags that doesn't quite work is have John Wayne make an unbilled appearance as Diana Dors's idea of a romantic leading man. Romantic? John Wayne? Wayne makes two appearances in the film. In a movie theater where Gobel and Dors are watching the Duke and Angie Dickinson mouthing some meaningless romantic dialog with the Duke looking quite debonair.

I have to believe that this was a gag meant for someone like Cary Grant or Tyrone Power who were great romantics on the screen. The Duke just looks ridiculous doing this. Maybe that in itself was a gag.

I'll let you be the judge if you see this film.

Wonderful to see the great Diana Dors in her prime. She really was an actress but was seldom allowed to show it, as in this film. The storyline is similar to romantic comedies of the '30s and '40s. Dors married to Gobel, somewhat reminiscent of the Marylin Monroe characters often matched with male characters thought not to be in her league, are an enjoyable couple. No doubt that this is a piece of fluff, but enjoable to watch both leads at the time their names were part of pop culture.

I guess George Goebel was a popular enough as a TV comedian that it was worth a try at seeing what he could do on the big screen. But outside of the peculiarities of his show, such as constantly turning to the audience and explaining what he's thinking, or anticipating what's to follow in a skit he's in, he is as generic a comic actor as could be. This story is equally generic, and typically of late RKO films and perhaps Hollywood comedies of the 1950's, a generally safe, monotonous atmosphere prevades. Goebel is cast as an advertising man with an overstated, mountain out of a molehill problem of writing some ad copy, and a similar problem with his marital relations. Though he struggles through endless rewrites and sleepless nights, his job problem seems easily accomplished to us non-ad men. If it weren't for needless, plot extending meddling by his boss, the story could have been halved. Goebel is married to georgeous blonde Diana Dors, which would seem unlikely on the face of it, considering how mild-mannered and less than he-man a catch George would be, but Diana herself always seemed quiet and mild and ladylike in most every film or guest appearance on TV I've ever seen, despite the sexy, bombshell exterior. Maybe it's her British reserve. She's beautiful but calm. She plays a scatterbrain, running on impulse power, making petty schemes to con George into doing or buying things, assisted by her equally devious mother. She instigates a twist in the story to make Goebel jealous, while his boss is setting him up in an ad campaign he doesn't know he's in, and it's all handled in so dull a way it makes one think how much livelier it would have been if it were compacted into the short space of a TV program, where this story really belonged. An interesting gag in it was getting John Wayne to play in an imaginary movie scene playing in a theatre, that's in color, whereas the rest of the film, i.e. the "real life" scenes are black and white. Later, George and Diana meet John Wayne, and he's still in color, though now NOT on a movie screen, until his wife shows up, and they go to half color, half black and white, then he too, joins her in the all black and white world. I speculate what that means, if there's supposed to be a message about percieved "reality" of film, or the debilitating conseqence of marriage?

When the biggest name in Hollywood gets a pivotal role, but is unbilled, there is something unusual happening.

It gives away nothing to mention that the great John Wayne plays John Wayne in a movie within the movie, and his movie is color within the black-and-white "I Married A Woman."

The other surprise, to me, was the ability demonstrated by George Gobel. I had seen some of his TV shows in some of my TV history classes, and never had the slightest suspicion he was a talented actor as well as variety show host. He's also a very nice-looking guy, even if shorter than his leading lady.

In "I Married A Woman" (and what a woman: the gorgeous Diana Dors!), Gobel reminds me a lot of Harry Langdon as the rather hapless and put-upon husband and advertising agency executive.

The Duke shows up rather early when the married couple take in a movie, "Forever and Forever and Forever," which would have been a really interesting role for Wayne.

That marvelous actor Adolphe Menjou is the ad company boss and is, of course, superb, a delight as always.

William Redfield shows strength in a nicely written part of elevator operator and law student. He is so great in this role, I don't understand why he didn't become a big star.

Several other major talents and some recognizable faces round out a very capable cast, few of whom are household names today.

The directing could have been tighter, but there are no major gaffes or holes; the script was well-enough written, as one would expect from Goodman Ace, but probably can't be considered one of the 100 greatest.

Still, "I Married A Woman" is fun and surprising and it has some beauty and warmth. It played on Turner Classic Movies on 18 June 2015. Next time it's presented, I hope you can see it.

Diana dors is hot! But that's all! The writing is so bad, and the lead actor is so annoying, I can't dumb myself down to watch. I did watch the film, but I kept saying aloud, "this is so dumb!" The writing and characters are so weak and dumb. Had potential but I watched and it's so bad.