The Marrying Kind

The Marrying Kind a new comedy by Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin (the authors of Adam's Rib and Born Yesterday) describes what happens when one dumb blond meets another dumb blonde one afternoon in Central Park marries her and begins life a new in a New York City apartment.

The script writers apparently turned this one out with two objects in mind: 1) to give Judy Holliday another opportunity to display her talent as a comedienne, and 2) to present a fairly thorough view of the ups and downs of seven years of married life for a struggling young couple in the city. The results of their endeavors is a rather uneven picture one that never quite bridges the gap between its amusing and serious situations. It relies heavily on the abilities of its leading players to make the best of routine episodes and gags of the bathroom bedroom and kitchen variety.

For the first half of The Marrying Kind the authors are trying to be funny and frequently thanks to the efforts of Miss Holliday and newcomer Aldo Ray they are. Although she does nothing new, Miss Holliday succeeds in making her dumb blonde thick witted and likeable at the same time. Ray uses his two main acting props a hoarse voice and an air of bewilderment to excellent advantage.

In the second half of the picture however the authors introduce tragedy in the form of death and illness in the family and some unnecessary sermonizing on marriage by a condescending female divorce court judge. Handled with more restraint and less shouting by the protagonists the serious parts of the film would be perfectly acceptable; as it is they are merely tiresome.

Despite its shortcomings The Marrying Kind is in part redeemed by its generally good direction and the fact that all the New York scenes were filmed on location. These factors along with a share of clever dialogue and good performances by the two stars make it a better than average comedy, but one that falls far short of its Gordon Kanin predecessors.