Product Description

A fun-loving comedy about a judge (Victor Moore) who unknowingly marries a number of couples before his appointment is official. Years later, when the couples discover their vows aren't valid, the results vary from hilarious to heartbreaking. Marilyn Monroe stars as a young mother on the beauty pageant circuit whose husband (David Wayne) wishes she would stay home. Finding out that they're not legally hitched, they wonder whether it's wise to stay together. Other couples questioning their vows include a pair of eternally bickering radio performers (Ginger Rogers and Fred Allen) and a pregnant bride (Mitzi Gaynor) whose husband (Eddie Bracken) is going off to war. Along with Zsa Zsa Gabor as a fortune-hunting shrew trying to take her tycoon husband (Louis Calhern) for everything he's got, in this classic comedy explores the true meaning of marriage.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #15336 in DVD
• Brand: Twentieth Century Fox
• Released on: 2004-04-20
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 86 minutes

Amazon.com
Anyone who thinks everyone in the 1950s held marriage sacred hasn't seen We're Not Married, one of the more gleefully cynical snipes ever aimed at that fundamental institution. Five couples discover that their marriages aren't legal--Ginger Rogers and Fred Allen as a bickering pair of beloved radio personalities; Marilyn Monroe as a beauty contestant with her oppressed house-husband, David Wayne; Eve Arden and Paul Douglas as a chatty pair who've run out of conversation; Louis Calhern as a kindly tycoon married to gold-digging Zsa Zsa Gabor; and Eddie Bracken as a soldier who's just learned his not-quite-wife Mitzi Gaynor is pregnant. Into their lives comes a letter from the government revealing the truth about their unions, and suddenly everyone considers what their lives might be, if only... We're Not Married spins five variations on a theme, with smart, sly, and sardonic results. --Bret Fetzer

Customer Reviews

Why no deleted sequence?
This is a funny movie, especially the Fred Allen and Ginger Rogers section, with a great cast but why didn't Fox include the deleted sequence with Walter Brennan and Hope Emerson as an extra? It's included on the Hidden Hollywood Fox DVD and it's been shown on AMC. It should've been included on this disc.

"...to inform you that you are not legally married."
"In one week, he laid six time bombs. ... He jumped the gun. The appointment was for 1 January. This clown began marrying people before he had the authority!" That's what the attorney general tells the Governor Bush (!!!) of (I presume Louisiana), as the story opens in Gretna Green. That clown is Judge Melvin Bush (Victor Moore), a doddering but well-meaning old man. His daughter-in-law, the governor's wife, proposes that they write the couples of the mistake and let them take it from there.

The first couple, Steve and Ramona Gladwyn (Fred Allen and Ginger Rogers) have the funniest moments of all five. However, two and a half years after their marriage, they live in a totally hostile atmosphere, and they don't need help from that thunderstorm outside in the opening waking up segment. Avoiding each other, slamming doors, not saying a word--imagine what this couple think about each other. They are hosts of a radio breakfast program that mentions products of their latest sponsors. As Steve puts it, we're "having a bit of good, clean, nauseating fun over the bacon in eggs in the morning." We actually get a sample of their show, the Glad Gladwyns, and it's funny: "I did what so many society women do these days. I went to Madame Yvonne's Hairdo Heaven Madame Yvonne uses the Sensational Hairdresser. It contains that new mystery ingredient... chicken fat!"

The second involves Jefferson and Annabelle Norris (David Wayne and Marilyn Monroe) of Senatobia, Mississippi. Mrs. Norris has just won the Mrs. Mississippi beauty pageant, and I would definitely have voted for her. While she's out winning contests, her husband is stuck feeding the baby and doing the kitchenwork. However, Annabelle's agent has bigger plans, to expand this to the national level, which means more stay-at-home for the increasingly disgruntled Jefferson. That is, until he opens the letter. It's interesting to see the view of house-husbands in the 1950's compared to today.

Couple number three are Hector and Katherine Woodruff (Paul Douglas and Eve Arden). Despite the judge describing them as talkative, "yakkety yak yak", it's quite the opposite. Their situation is similar to that of the Gladwins, except that they get along slightly better. Thing is, there's an air of boredom. There's hardly anything to talk about and Hector seems to remember the days when he used to party, to the displeasure of his wife.

Frederick and Eve Melrose (Louis Calhern and Zsa Zsa Gabor)--ah yes, that couple. Mr. Melrose, an oil tycoon is pleasantly surprised when his wife suggests she meet him at his usual hotel where he retires to when conducting business in New Orleans, and she particularly asks, "don't forget to register for me." What follows is a show of deceit, until the letter shows up. It's the registration form showing 5 June 1951, which if I do the math, reveals that the first marriage by the judge was done Christmas Eve 1948.

Wilson and Patricia Fisher (Eddie Bracken and Mitzi Gaynor) have a trying time. Wilson, called up for the Asiatic-Pacific Theatre, presumably Korea, is not only shocked to know his wife is pregnant, but he has already gotten the letter, and he is being shipped overseas. His sergeant is totally unsympathetic to the problem, saying that he should try not to get shot. The view of 50's morality of illegitimacy is interesting when seen from today's eyes.

There is one goof that is seen only once. When Mr. Norris gets the letter, we see that there is just his name, city and state--no street address. Either Senatobia is small enough that the mailman knows everyone by name, or he is telepathic. And one wonders if all the letters were like that.

An interesting collection of five stories, with all performers doing their best, but notable for a young and still very beautiful Marilyn Monroe. Victor Moore would later be a plumber in The Seven Year Itch, also with MM, and this is the second of four films David Wayne appeared in with MM. Ginger Rogers would appear with MM in Monkey Business.

A star-studded comedic romp from 1952
We're Not Married is a star-studded comedy from 1952 that helped catapult Marilyn Monroe to stardom. Ginger Rogers gets top billing, but the spotlight is shared by just about everyone in this terrific cast. The premise of the movie centers around a rather scatterbrained, newly appointed (by his nephew the governor) justice of the peace who marries a number of couples immediately after receiving his formal letter on Christmas Eve. Unfortunately, his appointment was not official until January 1, meaning that over two years later several couples from many walks of life suddenly discover that they are not legally married. The reaction of each couple to this news is, to say the least, quite varied. Ginger Rogers and Fred Allen play a popular morning show husband and wife team who get paid to sound like the happiest couple on earth, yet they no longer even speak to each other off the air; they treat the news at first as a miracle come true. Marilyn Monroe plays a beauty contestant who has to give up her newly-won crown of Mrs. Mississippi, much to the delight of her exceedingly domesticated husband (David Wayne). The Woodruffs (Paul Douglas and Eve Arden) are perhaps the most typical married couple, conversing about only the most mundane topics when they speak at all, and the husband cannot help but entertain thoughts of painting the town red once again with a different woman on his arm each night. The news arrives in the form of divine justice for wealthy businessman Freddie Melrose (Louis Calhern), whose gold-digging wife (Zsa Zsa Gabor) is planning on taking him for everything he's worth in divorce court. The most memorable couple by far have to be the Fishers, though. Willie Fisher (Eddie Bracken) is hit with two tons of bricks just as he is shipping out with his military unit: he and his wife are not legally married, and his beloved Patty (Mitzi Gaynor) is pregnant. The links he goes to in order to make sure his child will not be born out of legal wedlock are quite touching and make for a most satisfying, uplifting ending.

We're Not Married is a comedy that succeeds exceedingly well. The acting is superb all the way around, and some real truths about marriage are to be found within and among the laughter the film generates. Although Marilyn Monroe does not have one of the more significant roles in the film, her performance was impressive enough to land her face on the cover of Life magazine alongside a caption referring to her as the new talk of Hollywood. 1952 was the real breakout year for Marilyn, and this deeply amusing film has a lot to do with that fact. Do not watch it just for Marilyn, though, as We're Not Married is a great joy to watch in and of itself.