J'épouse mon mari

"Grounds for Marriage" is watchable but I also found the plot to be silly and just hate the sort of singing that Kathryn Grayson did in this film. If you like very operatic music, perhaps you won't mind it like I did.

When the film begins, you learn that Linc (Van Johnson) and Ina (Grayson) have been divorced for a few years and Linc is now planning on remarrying. Inexplicably, Ina wants Linc back--though exactly why is never really explored. In fact, it seems as if she wanted the divorce in order to follow her dream career--and now she is scheming to get him back despite him upcoming marriage to another lady.

In order to get Linc's attention, she pretends to have a throat disorder and they call for a doctor--and Linc just happens to be that doctor. Now any sane doctor would have refused the case and referred her on to another--especially since she announced that she's trying to rekindle their dead marriage. But he doesn't--and eventually you know exactly how it's all going to end.

Aside from the singing, the worst part about the film was Grayson's character. At times she was shrill and late in the film when Linc wants her back(???), she runs off in a huff--and this makes zero sense in light of her working so hard to get him. Overall, she comes off as petulant and childish and you have no idea why Linc would want her.

At the very best, this is a silly time-waster--a film to watch when you don't want anything intellectually taxing.

A thoroughly enjoyable battle of the sexes type of film, with Van Johnson, a musically inclined doctor, being fought over, tooth and nail, by two ambitious women, one(Kathryn), his ex-wife. Just saw this on TCM. Being in B&W, obviously, it was considered by MGM to be a budget film. After her last 2 films costarring Sinatra bombed, MGM was looking for a a new male costar for Kathryn. Mario Lanza's singing style more matched hers, and they made 2 commercially successful films together. However, Kathryn couldn't stomach Mario's abusive megalomaniacal personality. Soon, Howard Keel would be found an ideal singing partner for her high budget musicals.In this film, they also tried likable Van Johnson. True, Van was no heavy weight singer and didn't have matinée idol looks. But, he was right for his part in this film. I thought he had good chemistry with Kathryn in this vastly underrated musical comedy about a pushy shrew with knockout looks and angelic singing voice trying to win back, by whatever means it took,her ex-husband. It's amusing to see Kathryn acting as if she were in a silent film, after she looses her voice for psychosomatic reasons, for about half the film. If you have never seen the Fire House Five plus Two do some of their very hot Dixieland Jazz, they are an added attraction. Toward the end, the story becomes a madcap comedy comparable to the best of them. Funny witty dialogue between the 4 principles in a fast moving back and forth romantic tangle,with Van loosing his voice for a spell, in imitation of Kathryn.Prior to this, we see and hear parts of a rendition of "Carmen" in Van's dream. Van's singing voice is obviously dubbed, probably by Mario. I think if MGM had shot this film in color and promoted it, it would have fared much better at the box office.

I watched this on TCM because I am a huge Van Johnson fan and I hadn't seen it. The convoluted story is silly and the chemistry between Johnson and Kathryn Grayson is non-existent so it doesn't come off, but there are a few merits to make it worth watching anyway.

Dr. Bartlett AKA Link (Johnson) is engaged to socialite Agnes Oglethorpe-Young (Paula Raymond), and life is peachy. However, his divorce from his first wife, opera-singer Ina Massine (Grayson), has only just gone through, and it has prompted her flame for him to reignite. She is an eccentric woman and decides she will stop at nothing, including breaking and entering, to get Link back. Against doctor's orders, she performs in La Boheme, and afterward loses her voice. Oglethorpe-Young's father (Lewis Stone) is a doctor and suggests Massine's ailment is mental and a result of her desire for Link. Therefore, Link takes it upon himself to court her with the help of his brother (Barry Sullivan) in hopes she will fall for his brother instead and be cured, solving both his and her problem in one fell swoop.

This film is dated in many ways, especially in an exchange with a taxi driver. "Hey bud, take my advice. Stick to this chick. She can't scream!"

If you're a fan of classic Hollywood, Grounds for Marriage features quite a cast. The music is also impressive. It varies between classical pieces to jazz in a memorable cameo of the Firehouse Five Plus Two. Johnson dances the Charleston in an amusing way that hearkens back to his days on the musical stage prior to appearing in films. Although he was a tall man, he achieves a certain amount of grace in this scene, and a lightheartedness that encompasses his appeal on the screen. His acting in the scene where he catches a cold is hammy and overdone, but I can't help but love him anyway.

While KATHRYN GRAYSON doesn't get a chance to shine here (she's left voiceless for too much of the film), at least VAN JOHNSON and BARRY SULLIVAN prove so adept at comedy that it's a shame they never had more frequent chances to prove how good they were at mugging.

Sullivan, with his trim mustache and eyebrow-raised reactions, is clearly having a good time as an eccentric toymaker with designs on Grayson and PAULA RAYMOND--and anyone else who tickles his fancy.

Van Johnson has a fine time as a doctor who is part of an all-doctor orchestra and trying not to renew his relationship with ex-wife Grayson. Unfortunately, the script makes Grayson's character rather unbearable, relieved only by some operatic warbling that scarcely gives the audience time to appreciate her musical talent. Ironically, the studio could have chosen much more effective operatic arias for her to sing, given that she's supposed to be an operatic diva who has just finished a world tour. Instead, we get very brief segments from "La Boheme" and "Carmen" that are over much too soon.

Funniest bit has Van Johnson stifling a cold while making a speech about his theories on cold symptoms and later getting sympathetic treatment from Grayson while he wheezes and coughs his way into a spasm of epic proportions. He's hilariously effective.

Summing up: Too bad the script isn't bright enough to accommodate all of these expert performers. A very uneven comedy that gets a lift from Johnson and Sullivan.

I wonder why there had been quite a few negative reviews on this movie. It is a predictable rom com, with nice opera musics thrown in. And Grayson's may not be Callas, but her talent is beyond question.

Especially brilliant was the Carmen's L'amour est un oiseau rebelle or rather the spoof of Carmen, where the characters - the male ones- change their role based on situation, or rather how Van Johnson thinks of the fluid - double triangle - between his brother, his fiancee, himself and the ex-wife. Once he is Jose to his brother's Morales, taking Carmen away from him and then he changes place and makes Jose of the brother Chris, and himself becoming Escamillo to seduce Carmen away, and then in the end becomes again Jose, to finally possess Carmen to her end. It is a fascinating way to show the want that on subconscious became the dream, and like real dreams, it modified the characters to suit the dreamer's subconscious wants. Of course the poor Van Johnson didn't have much to chose from, between fire and frying pan, both the women in his life were bent on dominating, or rather crushing him like a worm, and he had to chose one, naturally choice wasn't much of his, but of the two women, who would, in addition to him, dominate the other. Grayson was cute and musical, Johnson has pictured the steady, though quite helpless, guy, and Sullivan suited the play-boy brother's role fair enough. The movie didn't have much of dull moments and I still wonder the reason of its far below average rating.