In the early 1950s there were several episodic movies that came out of 20th Century Fox, two of which had early performances of Marilyn Monroe. The two were O'HENRY'S FULL HOUSE and this film, WE'RE NOT MARRIED! The O'Henry anthology had stories that were funny ("The Ransom of Red Chief") and stories that were moving ("The Gift of the Magi"), and stories that were tragic ("The Last Leaf"). But WE'RE NOT MARRIED! was pure comedy, and as such worked quite well.
It is based on an old plot ploy that turns up in other films, like Hitchcock's MR. AND MRS. SMITH. What happens to a married couple, after a couple of years of marriage, when they discover that there is a flaw in their marriage that invalidates it? Like MR. AND MRS. SMITH, the flaw here is the legality of the license...of the justice of the peace. And in WE'RE NOT MARRIED, the nice but bumbling justice of the peace is Victor Moore. Moore had gotten word that he was appointed to the job, and began marrying as soon as he got the letter. He did not notice that he was not to marry anyone until a particular date. As a result there are at least six couples that he married who are technically living in sin.
How do they handle the problem? In MR. AND MRS. SMITH, Robert Montgomery's attempt to dismiss it as a minor problem almost destroyed his marriage (as Carole Lombard wonders what kind of man he really is). Here the stories are able to look at the situation carefully. The results are far more cynical in three cases.
Louis Calhern, a millionaire, marries Zsa Zsa Gabor (a gold digger) who arranges to frame him so she can divorce him and get a bundle. Calhern, confused and not knowing what to do, gets the letter from Moore and suddenly realizes Gabor has no legal standing to do anything (this was long before the concept of "palimony"). Suddenly, to the consternation of her attorney (Paul Stewart) and Gabor, not only is Calhern cooperative, but he's positively full of information about hidden assets. At the very conclusion he drops the shoe on Zsa Zsa by giving her the letter as a personal message of a deep feeling for her. As he leaves the room we hear her faint.
Walter Brennan (in a section of the film that was cut originally but has been restored) is a backwoods Lothario who loves to charm Hope Emerson. Emerson is married with several kids (which Brennan knows about) but he keeps saying how he'd love to marry her if only she were free (Brennan does this because he really loves Emerson's cooking - charmed by him she is feeding his lying face). Then she gets the letter from Moore, and asks Brennan to read it (Hope can't read). Brennan realizes what it's about, and hastily lies about the contents, and says it is junk mail. Then he destroys it. Little does he realize, after that sequence ends, that Moore and his wife (Jane Darwell) are discussing the rural address and problems of delivery there, and decide to send a second copy just to be certain.
Paul Douglas is married to Eve Arden, but their marriage is in one of those rut periods. When he gets the letter, he starts imagining his new freedom, dating another good looking woman each night. Only at the end of this dream does he suddenly envision the cost of such a lifestyle (an expensive cost for 1952). At the end he decides to forget about the gorgeous women and look at how nice, peaceful, and stable that rut he's in really is.
There are also stories involving Mitzi Gaynor and Eddie Bracken, Marilyn Monroe and David Wayne, and (possibly best) Fred Allan and Ginger Rogers as a bickering couple who are like Dorothy Kilgallen and her husband Dick Kalmar on radio's "Breakfast With Dorothy and Dick". While not the greatest of film comedies, it's pretty consistently amusing in getting as much mileage out of the central plot ploy. Certainly worth watching and enjoying when it turns up on television.
It is based on an old plot ploy that turns up in other films, like Hitchcock's MR. AND MRS. SMITH. What happens to a married couple, after a couple of years of marriage, when they discover that there is a flaw in their marriage that invalidates it? Like MR. AND MRS. SMITH, the flaw here is the legality of the license...of the justice of the peace. And in WE'RE NOT MARRIED, the nice but bumbling justice of the peace is Victor Moore. Moore had gotten word that he was appointed to the job, and began marrying as soon as he got the letter. He did not notice that he was not to marry anyone until a particular date. As a result there are at least six couples that he married who are technically living in sin.
How do they handle the problem? In MR. AND MRS. SMITH, Robert Montgomery's attempt to dismiss it as a minor problem almost destroyed his marriage (as Carole Lombard wonders what kind of man he really is). Here the stories are able to look at the situation carefully. The results are far more cynical in three cases.
Louis Calhern, a millionaire, marries Zsa Zsa Gabor (a gold digger) who arranges to frame him so she can divorce him and get a bundle. Calhern, confused and not knowing what to do, gets the letter from Moore and suddenly realizes Gabor has no legal standing to do anything (this was long before the concept of "palimony"). Suddenly, to the consternation of her attorney (Paul Stewart) and Gabor, not only is Calhern cooperative, but he's positively full of information about hidden assets. At the very conclusion he drops the shoe on Zsa Zsa by giving her the letter as a personal message of a deep feeling for her. As he leaves the room we hear her faint.
Walter Brennan (in a section of the film that was cut originally but has been restored) is a backwoods Lothario who loves to charm Hope Emerson. Emerson is married with several kids (which Brennan knows about) but he keeps saying how he'd love to marry her if only she were free (Brennan does this because he really loves Emerson's cooking - charmed by him she is feeding his lying face). Then she gets the letter from Moore, and asks Brennan to read it (Hope can't read). Brennan realizes what it's about, and hastily lies about the contents, and says it is junk mail. Then he destroys it. Little does he realize, after that sequence ends, that Moore and his wife (Jane Darwell) are discussing the rural address and problems of delivery there, and decide to send a second copy just to be certain.
Paul Douglas is married to Eve Arden, but their marriage is in one of those rut periods. When he gets the letter, he starts imagining his new freedom, dating another good looking woman each night. Only at the end of this dream does he suddenly envision the cost of such a lifestyle (an expensive cost for 1952). At the end he decides to forget about the gorgeous women and look at how nice, peaceful, and stable that rut he's in really is.
There are also stories involving Mitzi Gaynor and Eddie Bracken, Marilyn Monroe and David Wayne, and (possibly best) Fred Allan and Ginger Rogers as a bickering couple who are like Dorothy Kilgallen and her husband Dick Kalmar on radio's "Breakfast With Dorothy and Dick". While not the greatest of film comedies, it's pretty consistently amusing in getting as much mileage out of the central plot ploy. Certainly worth watching and enjoying when it turns up on television.