Are You Ready for Marriage?

Sue and Larry kiss on her front porch and he asks her to marry him. He has two years of university and she's still finishing high school. Her parents do not approve. He wants to elope. They go to the local church for some advice from marriage counselor Mr. Hall. He has a "Cupid's Checklist".

It's a Coronet instructional film. I'm guessing that this doesn't want to pick a denomination, and made Mr. Hall non-specific. This is a battle between cringe-worthy and laughable. When Mr. Hall let go of the elastic band, I really laughed. The actors' reactions are hilariously bad. This is a lot of the old time marriage advice.

I love Sue, the not-too-bright, anal-retentive, popular-song-loving wanna-be bride at the center of this delightful doughnut of a short. She wants to marry her weird-faced boyfriend Larry, but their parents are shocked and disgusted (not unlike "Is This Love?"). So they visit the creepy Rev. Hall, who shows them various charts and graphs made out of glitter glue and string that tells Larry and Sue about their love, their potential for happiness, and their "Boin-n-n-n-g!" (Rev. Hall's word, not mine). It all confuses Sue: "But I don't want to marry a girl, like me! I want to marry a man, like Larry!"

Ask your doctor about this educational short today. Available through Something Weird video or Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode # 616: Racket Girls.

Two slightly dim-witted college kids who want to get married, but have been rebuffed by their parents, seek advice from a marriage counselor named Mr. Hall (Reuben Hill?). Mr. Hall advises them to take time to get to know each other, using a variety of silly props and a host of pseudo-scientific graphs ("Chance for Happiness" vs. "Length of Engagement", "Overall Grooviness of Feelings" vs. "Shoe Size", etc.). These graphs are typical of the type used by social scientists to make their mushy, goopy theories seem like hard science.

This short is a likably goofy example of the kind of instructional films made during the early '50's for classroom use. Mr. Hall really does, by the way, use the word "BOINNGG!!" to describe the physical attraction felt by young men and women for each other. Hmmmm...

I liked it. Made a lot of sense. What more do I need to say?

Ah, yet another short instructional film that doesn't stand up to the test of time. Back in the prehistoric 1950's, divorce was a big no-no. When you married someone, you were more or less stuck with that person for life. This short is a warning against rushing headlong into a marriage that may be sweet and nice in the beginning, but later on will make the lockhorns look good. These days, however, it's marry now - divorce later.