Marriage Is a Private Affair (1944)

Simply A Masterpiece

It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

The acting in this movie is really good.

Copyright 22 July 1944 by Loew's Inc. A Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer picture. New York opening at the Capitol: 26 October 1944. U.S. release: October 1944. Australian release: 26 April 1945. 10,444 feet. 116 minutes.SYNOPSIS: Lana played Theo Scofield, a New York playgirl, who "spends her winters in Miami and her summers in Reno," the latter while waiting for the next divorce of her much-married mother who tells her daughter "the first marriage, at least, should be romantic." On this theory, Theo marries Tom West, a fighter pilot on furlough, who is later grounded to handle an important war job in a laboratory. After their baby is born, Theo devotes herself conscientiously to being a model wife and mother. She tries hard at first, but has little faith in her ability to make a good wife. She misses her carefree youth, her string of boyfriends, the glitter and glamour of being loved by a lot of men instead of just one. When she runs into Miles Lancing, an ex-beau, Theo is annoyed because he doesn't act as romantic as he once did. So she dons a sexy gown and heads for the Officers' Club to find him and recapture his attention. But when she returns home that night she finds Tom angry because this was the night they were to celebrate their baby's first birthday. More misunderstandings and reconciliations follow. COMMENT: For once you can get a fair idea of a film's quality from the Synopsis. Believe you me, this talking bore of a story isn't any more lively in the rendering than the reading. True, it's stylishly directed and has lush production values. Lana Turner looks most attractive in cinematographer Ray June's flattering close-ups. And she wears enough costumes, gowns and ensembles to make every female in the audience green with envy. When she starts perambulating through the sets that look as if furnished by Diamond Jim while she strums out an apparently endless series of bogus emotional problems, every feminine heart will flutter - and every male vocal chord will start screaming for the end title.Trimmed of half its running time this Marriage Affair is passably entertaining. I once saw an expertly cut 65-minute version on TV. But as for 117 minutes of Mrs Lana T., leave her to the girls.

"Lovey Howell" (Natalie Schafer) tries to steal the opening scenes, but no-one could steal the show away from the beautiful Lana Turner. Turner is "Theo", the bride, who tries to keep her mother from butting in. James Craig is "Miles", the close friend, but she will marry "Tom West", a good soldier from Boston (John Hodiak). This was a WW II film, so of course, the issues of war, and getting married before one goes off to war were in everyone's mind. This was an earlier credited role for most of the cast, but it all comes off quite well. Not much of a deep story, but it's well done. Turner really lit up any scene, once they put a light on her. ( If you haven't seen Postman Always Rings Twice, it's her shining role!) The ups and downs of married life. It's a bit of war time propaganda... Lana always seems to be thinking out loud, voicing all her thoughts all the time, whether she's with her friends or her husband, almost in a child-like fashion. At one point, Theo looks at a sign that says "DO NOT ENTER".. and enters anyway, destroying army equipment. Seems pretty unrealistic. How entitled of her! About half way through, the plot goes off in other directions, and it gets more serious. It's almost two hours, but they could have done all this in shorter time. It's pretty good. I'm sure it carried more weight with folks who really were going through all these same issues during wartime. Directed by Robert Leonard, who had started EARLY in the silents.

Lana Turner, in one of her earliest movies where she takes center stage and top billing, stars in this comedy-drama about marriage being nobody's business but the couple's. James Craig loves her, even though she marries John Hodiak. This does start off talking silly, as John proposes to her and on their honeymoon, but it's to the movie's credit and intelligence that it plays out very well in its treatment of its characters and make them very relate-able to the audience, the other characters being John's friends Sissy and Ted, a married couple, and Joe, played by Hugh Marlowe. Lana's mother (played by Natalie Shafer, who was Mrs. Howell from Gilligan's Island) was in and out of marriages all the time and did not provide Lana with a good role model. But, the viewer is left with the message that you should work in your own garden, before tending to someone else's, that you should go into it, knowing who you are and that all decisions have consequences. "Marriage is a Private Affair" is one of Lana's best unknown movies and needs to be discovered by more people today.

The makers of this film had a premise: a woman whose childhood makes her a rather flakey person, a bit unsure of herself, picks one of her many suitors just to see if she can. But from there, the movie forgets drama. Why should she come to embrace marriage? It's not the birth of her son. It's not any one thing that happens to her. There's no plot catalyst in this movie, no psychological edge. It's more like a soap opera, where the characters change for no particular reason.