weezeralfalfa
This is a potentially interesting topic, with an all-star cast, largely wasted in a screenplay that's too dispersed, with too little humor. I regard this film as essentially an anthology of little dramas, some with a measure of comedic content. I suspect probably 3 couples rather than 5, would be optimal in the time given.Reviewer dejimd points out that lack of a legal marriage license doesn't necessarily mean that, legally, a couple is not considered married. Thus, the apparently difficult position of Eddie Bracken and Mitzi Gaynor in regard to her pregnancy is not as serious as they had feared. On the other hand, gold-digging Zsa Zsa need not have fainted when she received the notice that her marriage certificate was invalid because the justice of peace that married them was new and not legally able to perform marriage ceremonies for another week. It's perhaps surprising that the bickering couple played by Fred Allen and Ginger Rogers decide to undergo a legally valid marriage ceremony. My guess is that they made sure they were legally married because their jobs at the radio station depended on their being married to each other.The Paul Douglas and Eva Arden couple seemed bored with each other, with no baby to provide a common interest. I wouldn't be surprised if they had rejected a shoring up of the legality of their marriage. I suspect they may have bowed to inertia, in hopes their relationship would eventually get better. The David Wayne & Marylyn Monroe pair look to have a short-term economic strategy, with David serving as the stay-at-home babysitter, while she is traveling around competing in beauty contests. I correctly guessed that they would renew their marriage ceremony.Of course, we wouldn't expect Louis Calhern to agree to make his marriage with gold-digging Zsa Zsa look any more valid.In conclusion, being as how the premise that the common problem of these 5 couples is that they are not legally married is suspect, and the supposed humor is minimal, I can't recommend this film, unless you have a star actor you want to see.
vert001
Light as a feather anthology features a large cast and a premise that was old at the time (among others, Hitchcock had used it before and Dick Van Dyke would come up with the funniest version a decade later on his TV show). Due to a technicality, the marriages of five couples are invalid. Given a second chance, what will they do?The first segment has Ginger Rogers and Fred Allen playing a bickering radio couple whose program is heavy on product placement, light on anything else. It was a version of a popular skit Allen had done on radio with Tallulah Bankhead and predictably proved to be quite funny.Marilyn Monroe pops up in the second segment as a beauty contest hopeful. It has a clever twist at the end and a nice little performance from veteran character actor James Gleason.Eve Arden and Paul Douglas are wasted as a bored couple who prove boring to watch.Obvious is the segment featuring Zsa Zsa Gabor as a gold digger, but Louis Calhern gives a fine performance as her husband.Finally, Eddie Bracken and Mitzi Gaynor go searching for a preacher in what is supposed to be the most touching segment, and which certainly isn't funny in any way.All in all, pretty ordinary.
jarrodmcdonald-1
Are you ready for it? Here it comes! Married folks learn their weddings were not exactly legal. Yes, it's true!There are quite a few complications in this clever romp from 20th Century Fox. Screenwriter Nunnally Johnson has created a masterpiece and come up with a smart way to subvert the production code. In the story, he presents a vast array of characters that have received the benefit of marriage without actually having been hitched. In one couple's case, they already have a child! At least most of the couples on screen want to stay married/get married again. Which is more than most of the couples who probably are watching this movie.
dcjimd
This is a clever sketch comedy movie about what happens when a half dozen couples discover that they are not legally married. All of the sketches are amusing and one or two are hilarious and it stars some of the best character and up and coming actor and actresses that Hollywood had to offer at the time (Ginger Rogers, Louis Calhern, Marilyn Monroe, David Wayne, Eddie Bracken, Paul Douglas, Eve Arden, one of the Gabor sisters and many more).However, as an attorney, I cannot help but mention that the technical legal flaw that in the movie causes the invalidation of these marriages (the fact that the Justice of the Peace's term of office did not actually start until a few days after the marriages were celebrated) probably would not actually matter at all. The law of most states states that if a couple goes through the legal forms of marriage in good faith and then lives and present themselves to the world as a married couple for a substantial period of time, they ARE married in the eyes of the law despite any minor technical quibbles to the contrary. In fact, in many places a couple that does not even bother to go through with a marriage ceremony but lives together and acts like a married couple can be considered legally man and wife (this is sometimes known as a "common law marriage.")So much as I enjoyed seeing the greedy Gabor sister stymied when she tries to take Louis Calhern to the cleaners in their divorce settlement, I am afraid that under the community property law of California he would still be obliged to pay up. And Eddie Bracken and Mitzi Gaynor's characters need not be concerned about the status of their unborn child, there is no question under the law that the little tyke would be regarded as legitimate.
AD
