We're Not Married! (1952) Movie Review

We're Not Married! (1952)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Zsa Zsa Gabor in We're Not Married! (1952)

The Glad Gladwyns

It's Christmas Eve and Ramona (Ginger Rogers) and Steve (Fred Allen) rock up to the home of Justice of the Peace Melvin Bush (Victor Moore) looking to get married. Having just received his letter of appointment Melvin marries them and he marries another 5 couples over the following week. What Melvin didn't realise is that he wasn't officially appointed till the 1st of the year and each of those couples were therefore not officially married. This comes to surface when a few years down the line one couple he married in that week file for divorce only to learn that they were never legally married. Now the other 5 couples receive letters to inform them or their predicament with each dealing with the revelations differently.

With a cast lead by Ginger Rogers and featuring among others Marilyn Monroe, Eve Arden and Zsa Zsa Gabor "We're Not Married!" on paper seems like a smash hit. Unfortunately it is not the cracker comedy which it looks like it is going to be with it really being a movie of 5 situations. As such we have Ramona and Steve whose marriage turns out to be sham anyway as they only married to score a radio show as a happy couple. But they find that whilst they can't stand each other they are tied in to their contacts as Mr & Mrs Gladwyn and so need to remarry to continue in the lucrative manner. But the humour of this isn't so much that they don't get on but the look behind the scenes of their radio show where every line of dialogue is there to push a product.

Marilyn Monroe in We're Not Married! (1952)

Another set up features Marilyn Monroe as the beauty contest wife of Jeff who having thought he got it all when he married a babe now finds himself playing housewife whilst she gallivants around going to events as Mrs. Mississippi. I won't go in to detail other than to say this one is short and sweet. The thing is that whilst each of these marital episodes is amusing they are not great and truth be told owe more to who is in the movie than for the wit. In fact the best episode is the first one with Ginger Rogers and Fred Allen working the comedy of the scene but each one which follows gets progressively less entertaining.

What this all boils down to is that "We're Not Married!" entertains but mainly because of the calibre of the cast rather than for the comedy as the writing isn't always as witty as it thinks it is.


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