Almost Married (1942) User Reviews

Absurd story, funny cast.

[mark.waltz · 3/10 · 17 February 2017]

This ridiculous B comedy with songs from Universal is loaded with great character performers but has the most absurd of premises for a conflict. Nightclub singer wannabee Jane Frazee can't get a job simply because she doesn't have a name. All of a sudden, there's a headline in the paper indicating that she's married to a wealthy playboy (Robert Paige), all a ploy for him to get out of an unwanted engagement. His rich aunt Elizabeth Patterson wants the marriage ended before it has even begun. Her bombastic father, Eugene Palette, shows up to cause more havoc, leading to Paige to suggest marriage for real, but are his intentions for real?

At a short hour, this was a standard plot for B musicals at Universal, usually with the Andrews Sisters playing themselves and helping the love interests deal with interfering relatives or unwanted suitors. They're not in this one (obviously busy in another film with basically the same plot) but the supporting cast is filled with funny character actors doing basically the same thing. Maude Eburne is hysterical as a prickly, interfering landlady, while Charles Coleman gets laughs as Paige's droll Butler. Mediocre songs sung by the pretty Frazee don't sound as good coming out of her as they normally do, giving issues to the sound department, not her talent.

Great little screwball musical

[johannesaquila · 7/10 · 19 May 2022]

This relatively short feature film is primarily a screwball comedy, but also a musical film. It is generally very well done. One of its two main problems is the same one that the main female protagonist has: the actors don't 'have a name', and the film doesn't make up for this by being really outstanding.

With a star cast this could easily have become a classic despite (or because of) the silly premise that throws the competent but unknown nightclub singer together with the 'most eligible bachelor in the country' (The Star Dispatch) in a fake marriage. The couple does everything in a very unorthodox order, and the film's second problem is similarly an issue with sequencing: All the best scenes are in the beginning, there are some very good ideas in the middle, but the end is no more than just good.

Although things are wrapped up neatly in the end, it does feel as if time and money ran out. Or maybe the idea was that this would primarily be watched by couples who would pay more attention to each other at the end than to the movie?

In any case I think the film is really worth watching once if you like screwball comedies, and I am likely to rewatch the first half occasionally.