The Affairs of Martha (1942) User Reviews

A very nice little romantic-comedy

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 18 October 2007]

The film begins with a small but very rich town all abuzz because a story appears in the newspaper that one of their servants has written a "tell all" novel. Most of the folks are worried that their own secrets and peccadilloes will be exposed, so everyone seems to be keyed up to say the least.

The film then centers on a particular household where Marjorie Main and Marsha Hunt are employed. Unbeknownst to all, sweet Marsha is the author, but no one seems to suspect her in particular. Later, when her boss' son (Richard Carlson) returns from an anthropological expedition, a MAJOR romantic mess is revealed and much of the rest of the film is a cute romantic comedy where it soon is apparent that these two have some unfinished business! The writing, acting and pacing of this little film are all excellent--resulting in a very nice and very watchable film. Considering the modest expectations of this low-budget film, it is a considerable success.

Dassin at M-G-M!

[JohnHowardReid · 7/10 · 30 August 2017]

Producer: Irving Starr. Copyright 7 July 1942 by Loew's Inc. Presented by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Australian release: 28 January 1943. Sydney release at the St James: 20 January 1943. 7 reels. 66 minutes. 5,984 feet. Shooting title and U.K. release title: ONCE UPON A THURSDAY.

SYNOPSIS: Maid writes scandalous best-seller.

NOTES: Jules Dassin worked at MGM from 1941 to 1946 before joining up with producer Mark Hellinger on Brute Force and The Naked City. He then made Thieves' Highway at Fox — his last U.S. film before the blacklist forced him to flee to Europe and eventual world-wide fame with Rififi.

COMMENT: The Affairs of Martha is hardly characteristic of Dassin's work. Nevertheless, his direction is a great deal more assured than on his first feature, Nazi Agent. In fact, for a second feature (in both senses of the adjective), his direction is quite polished.

Admittedly he is helped by the efforts of a large, hard-working and agreeable assembly of players, headed by the pleasantly unassuming, mildly vivacious Marsha Hunt, and taking in some fine character people including the redoubtable wicked witch Margaret Hamilton and "Z"-western stalwart, Raymond Hatton.

Even when the plot slows down occasionally and dialogue threatens to take over, the film is always attractive to look at. Unlike Nazi Agent it has been treated all over with MGM's best production gloss — bright photography, attractive sets and costumes, smooth film editing — and Dassin's deft, stylish direction. Only the ponderously Mickey Mouse music score strikes an off-note.

To sum up: On the whole, an entertaining, enjoyable domestic comedy which has dated surprisingly well.

Great Cast-Weak Screenplay

[aimless-46 · 7/10 · 24 October 2007]

"The Affairs of Martha" (1942) is a good illustration of how even a dream cast and solid directing cannot transform a weak script into anything more than a very average production. Imagine having the luxury of Marsha Hunt as your leading lady and female love interest; surround her with some of the best comic character actors of the era (Virginia Weidler, Marjorie Main, Margaret Hamilton, Spring Byington, and Grady Sutton); finally throw in Richard Carlson's best ever performance. Any movie buff would expect quite a treat from this ensemble.

In writer Isobel Lennart's defense, Weidler was miscast; what are hilarious lines coming from a precocious 11-year-old (for which the part was written and for which Weidler would have been perfect a few years earlier) just don't work coming from a 15-year-old actress who looks even older. Following this film with several similar disasters Weidler retired from the business.

Contrary to the plot summary, young housekeeper Martha Linddstrom's soon to be published book is not the real focus of the film. It is a romantic comedy much like "Bringing Up Baby", and could have benefited from a few of that film's screwball elements. Jeff Sommerfield (Carlson) returns home from a long absence with his new fiancée Sylvia in tow. Jeff does not reckon on the continued presence of Martha (Marsha Hunt) in his parent's household. Just prior to his departure he married his parent's housekeeper at the conclusion of a drunken bender. Because she is genuinely in love with him Martha did not follow through on her promise to have the marriage annulled but instead has worked to improve herself in night school and has just completed a book lauding his family.

Oddly, coming from a misunderstood woman writer and centered on a misunderstood woman writer, Lennart takes a lot of cheap shots at the third side of the screenplay's love triangle. Academic Sylvia Norwood (Francis Drake) is beautiful, intellectual, accomplished, and very well-adjusted. This is not the sterile Alice Swallow character in "Bringing Up Baby". Sylvia must serve as the film's villainess, which not only fails to generate any audience concern (Jeff would benefit greatly from being paired with either woman), it totally undermines the working woman political subtext of the production.

Along with Carlson's performance there are several very good things about "The Affairs of Martha". Marsha Hunt (as always) is excellent in both melodramatic and comedic moments; its just too bad her character as written is so bland. For my money Hunt is the Hollywood's all-time most underrated actress and I've enjoyed her each time I've seen her. Grady Sutton has the film's best moment early in the film in a nonverbal sequence at the breakfast table; unfortunately his character is not developed further Given the film's very short running length and its failure to develop many of the most amusing secondary characters it is likely that much was trimmed out during the editing process.

There is a clever dinner table scene near the end of the film in which Jeff is emotionally ranting against writers and publishers; a demonstration that further alienates Martha. Eventually you understand that it is a ploy to delay the announcement of his engagement to Sylvia but it works as a very nice bit of misdirection.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

delightful surprise

[michael.e.barrett · 3 April 2001]

I've been tracking down films written by Isobel Lennart, so although I wasn't completely surprised by how charming this film is, most viewers will be since it's so obscure. This brief B-comedy opens with many splendid characters and zany complications, reminiscent of a Preston Sturges film without quite hitting that height. (There's even a "hep" kid sister that reminds me of Diana Lynn in Sturges' masterpiece "Miracle of Morgan's Creek," although I think that came out a couple of years later. In fact, "Martha" even has a drunken overnight marriage!) The comic actors--Spring Byington, Margaret Hamilton, Marjorie Main, etc.--give full-throttle readings in even brief roles, down to glances and gestures. What I perceive as typically Lennart touches: the opening "union" meetings of the maids and the matrons, who each vow to "stick together" ("One for one and all for all!" says the Swedish maid); and the appearance of the lonely, oddly touching and philosophical beach worker (shades of the character Pop in "Skirts Ahoy"). And Martha's motives in writing her book, also typically, are not selfish; she's not writing a scandalous expose as they fear but an expression of how much she likes them. Interesting that it's about a misunderstood woman writer! It's an early script for her and she co-wrote it, which may explain why there are easy stock characters and selfish negative ones (like the fiancee) who are shut out of the community instead of being recuperated.

Martha's Affairs.

[morrison-dylan-fan · 7/10 · 29 July 2019]

Gathering up titles to see for a run of viewings from auteurs in '42,I tried to find some lesser-known movies from future big name film makers. Finding Rififi (1955-also reviewed) to be mesmerising,I was interested to stumble on a early creation from Jules Dassin,which led to me meeting Martha.

View on the film:

In only his third directing credit and miles away from the Film Noir of the future, director Jules Dassin displays his skill in bringing character to dialogue-free sequences.In this case,Dassin keeps in time to Bronislau Kaper's chirpy score and creating a living MGM Cartoon atmosphere,which jumps around thanks to Dassin framing the family in strange symmetrical shots.

Losing out on the sassy edge it would have had in the Pre-Code era, the screenplay by Isobel Lennart & Lee Gold still rolls out a delightful Screwball Comedy, spun from funny dialogue of the whispers across the wealthy town of a butler/maid writing a tell-all book, landing on smooth Melodrama from maid Martha trying to keep her writings secrets from boss Sophia Sommerfield. Knowing all the family secrets, cute Marsha Hunt gives a sweet, breezy turn as Martha, who wishes to no longer keep secret the affairs of her heart.

A regular Peyton Place

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 18 December 2019]

I wonder if those guardians of our country at the House Un American Activities Committee took a careful look for a subversive message in The Affairs Of Martha before they blacklisted Jules Dassin. After all the story of household staffs meeting to confront their employers sure sounds subversive to me.

That's only part of the film and the film is a bright and innocuous comedy from MGM's B picture unit. Marsha Hunt stars as the tell all maid who has kept one secret, the fact she's married her boss's son Richard Carlson before he went off on a polar expedition.

A whole galaxy of familiar character players is what makes this film special. It gets a bit silly at times, but it's easy to take.

So you'd think she wrote a regular Peyton Place.

Lively characterizations from entire cast in charming comedy

[csteidler · 9/10 · 6 January 2014]

An affluent Long Island community is thrown into a panic: word is out that a maid is writing a "kitchen's-eye view" of her employers.

Marsha Hunt stars as Martha, the family maid who doesn't really mean to cause a big ruckus. Richard Carlson is the scientist son who unexpectedly returns home from studies abroad—and it's quickly obvious that he and Martha share a sensitive secret.

Carlson and Hunt are quite good—both give unassuming performances as characters who are just slightly offbeat.

Superb character actors in colorful roles fill out the rest of the cast: Marjorie Main is at her best as the boisterous cook who rounds up all the cooks and maids on the block for a strategy session. Virginia Weidler is fine as the young daughter who says, "Every now and then I get a feeling something's going on I don't know about." Spring Byington and Melville Cooper are the mildly eccentric mother and father. Allyn Joslyn is the sharp-witted publisher of the book-in-progress. And Barry Nelson is hilarious as the delivery boy who attempts to romance Martha (Main calls him a "pantry Casanova").

No single character dominates but the entire cast is colorful and clever; the witty script gives just about everyone something funny to say and contains just enough plot to offer a few twists: It's surprising, funny and sweet.

–Oh, and Margaret Hamilton, three years removed from Oz, has one hilarious line during the maids' and cooks' discussion of their employers: "You don't know how bad those witches can get once they get moving," she says.

If they asked her, she could write a book.

[mark.waltz · 5/10 · 27 November 2019]

Social scandal is the name of the game in this very amusing, if slight, comedy about rumors that the hired help in a restricted Long Island town has written a tell-all about their employer. Is it the blunt Margaret Hamilton (who refers to the society matrons they all work for as witches), Swedish Jody Gilbert, hot tamale Robin Raymond, long time cook Marjorie Main or the sweet Marsha Hunt who was once secretly married to her employer's traveling son, Richard Carlson? The audience figures it out right from the start but the amusement comes from how everything comes out, especially the revelation that a supposed divorce never happened.

The pretty Hunt works for Spring Byington and Melville Cooper (as well as their precocious teen daughter Virginia Wiedler), and everything seems to unravel when Carlson returns home with a snooty fiancee (Frances Drake) whom Wiedler hates from the start. Then there's Hunt's rough and tumble admirer (Barry Nelson) and her agent (Allyn Joslyn) and the plethora of upscale neighbors horrified about their secrets being revealed. Among the familiar character actors are lemon voiced Cecil Cunningham, uptight Sara Haden and obvious gold digger Inez Courtney, matrons who obviously wear the pants I their family.

With a lighthearted screenplay by Isobel Lennart and direction by Jules Dassin, this seems like this should be a bit of an art house film but it is just a decent, easy to enjoy light comedy. Hunt has one of her few leads and is fine, but I kept confusing her with fellow MGM contract player Ruth Hussey. Carlson is also very lively, but any scene with either Main or Wiedler is easily stolen by them. It's also perhaps a little late in the game for the standard screwball comedy, but it is completely pleasant and a lot of fun for its cast who seem to be enjoying themselves being melodramatic.

An overlooked gem. One of Hollywood's sweetest romantic comedies.

[friedlandea · 9/10 · 11 April 2019]

To appreciate this movie, I had to watch it twice. After one view I was left with the feeling there was something I had missed. I was left with an impression that the film was better than the impression with which I was left. On second view its intent, and its sweetness, came through. My problem, or mistake, was to anticipate a screwball comedy - which is not there essentially. That assumption came naturally, seeing in the cast such names as Melville Cooper, Spring Byington, Marjorie Main and Allyn Joslyn, in minor roles Ernest Truex, Margaret Hamilton and Robin Raymond. "The Affairs of Martha" is not in the mold of "His Girl Friday," "The Lady Eve." It is a romantic comedy, tenderer and more subdued. I found I had also been misled by a plot summary that suggested the story would revolve around a community's frantic reaction to a tell-all book written anonymously in its midst. That is the opening of the film. But it is not the story. I should have taken my cue from the title. It is the story of Martha and her loves. A lovely young woman (Marsha Hunt) relegated to the life of a menial, a domestic, chooses among three men, three destinies. Will she choose the handyman (Barry Nelson) who is (no pun intended) a small-town rake? Will she choose the New York sophisticate (Allyn Joslyn), or the awkward, intellectual son of her employers (Richard Carlson)? Isobel Lennart's plot is simple. But in the hands of these actors, especially the luminous Marsh Hunt, and director Jules Dassin - Marsha Hunt worked with Juley (as she called him in interviews, again in film and he directed her also on stage before they both fell in the blacklist - it becomes a sweet tale that sticks in the memory.

There is an element of social commentary, satirizing the pretentiousness and insularity of the bourgeoisie. Even the ocean waves must mute themselves so as not to ruffle the repose of this community somewhere on the Long Island shoreline. Every household comes equipped with maid and cook. The locals, milkmen and handymen, laugh at the snobs. The domestic servants plot like a revolutionary underground. It is satire. Bit it is genial satire. Martha aims to rise above her allotted fate. Given that she's the stunning Marsha Hunt, it's clear she'll do it. Still, until the end, it is not clear which destiny awaits her. Barry Nelson's rustic lothario would be a downgrade. But he has charm. Allyn Joslyn's city slicker at heart is honest and sincere; life with him might be rewarding. Richard Carlson's bespectacled anthropologist has a touch of Henry Fonda's stumbling herpetologist in "The Lady Eve"about him. Nobody is unlikable. Even the self-important townspeople (deftly incarnated by Spring Byington and Melville Cooper) are only gently ridiculous.We really do care about these people. The ending is happy. Any ending would be happy. It's a happy picture.

Marsha Hunt is magnificent. This may be the only time she saw her name at the top of the credits. That's a shame. Character actress as she was, she refuses to let her character be one-dimensional. She brings out a range of personality. There's a layer of conniving (she is the anonymous authoress), but also defiance (as when she rallies the maids to conspire against their employers), determination (she won't be put upon or deterred from improving her life). Martha has an edge of Katherine Hepburn toughness in her, and also some of the insouciance Jules Dassin later created for Melina Mercouri in "Never On Sunday." Yet there's the naivete of an ingenue. In some of the movie's best scenes Allyn Joslyn wines and dines her in the city's high society. "This is the life I was meant to have," she says. She carries the picture. Among the rest, Allyn Joslyn stands out in one of his more sympathetic roles, the kind he did as a leading man on Broadway, and Virginia Weidler, delightful as usual. It's meant for laughs, but not entirely. "The Affairs of Martha" grows as you watch it. You may have to see it twice. It's worth the time.

Not so merry maids, all in a row!

[misctidsandbits · 3 October 2011]

Martha, you sly puss. All those secrets! All those guys! What a juggling act.

Wolfercooler? Not sure of the spelling, but since it was made up on the quick, guess it really doesn't matter. Great stuff. Anytime you see Miranda (Virginia Weidler) by any other name, you know there's going to be fun. Poor Sylvia. She would have her troubles snagging one, and now that she finally does … Darn. Wonder where she went from there? Oh well, there are a lot of men that need managing out there.

We had all kinds of merry maids in this - a German wonder, the pert little minx, a couple of war horses like Ms. Main and even the wicked witch from Oz ("maid" Guinevere) (Margaret Hamilton).

Didn't Mrs. Jacel (Irene Cooper) resemble Hedy Lamarr, sitting there at the breakfast table in her peignoir? And who sort of slid out of the room when hubby mentions they didn't have any spicy secrets to worry about.

And Barry Nelson, just trying to make good here. His specialty seemed to be tugging at apron strings. Notice that?

"Mother knows best" says father Melville Cooper to daughter as Mom Byington feigns a fainting spell to withdraw from a dinner party disaster. Not long after, she really does faint with the next one. (Even the hostess with the mostest has her limits!) Great scene there around the table. Sara Haden, always interesting, very persistent in trying to get to the bottom of this telltale book business. Three-fourths are trying to open up the subject, with one-fourth trying to close it down. One has to wonder if there was any successful digestion that evening. (Didn't you hate to see all those squabs go to waste like that!)

How about the blonde trio with the revolving heads.

Why didn't that family have a snappy little dog getting underfoot in the middle of all the muddles? The only thing missing

Romcom/Quagmire

[rktrixy · 10/10 · 25 February 2021]

Amazing rom-com with socio-political overtones reminiscent of today. Spritely discussions of class both behind and in front the lower-class and higher-class subjects. Touches on marriage, publishing and false assumptions. Marsha Hunt shows her talent as being the dutiful maid, spurned wife, and eligible bachelorette.

screwball comedy based on play, lots of stars

[ksf-2 · 8/10 · 16 September 2009]

We open with a narrator describing the quiet, calm life in Rock Bay, where even the horses wear silencers on their hooves to keep the peace. Then we're in the dining rooms of high society, where we find out that SOMEONE's maid has a written a "Tell-all" book about the private goings on in town... Keep an eye out for Spring Byington as the high-society Mrs. Sommerfield, and Margaret Hamilton in a smaller role a couple years after Gone With the Wind.... Grady Sutton is in here as Justin Peacock Jr (he made all those films with W.C. Fields). The awesome Marjorie Main was Ma Kettle, and also a major role in "The Women", is in here as Mrs. McKessic; Virginia Weidler is the daughter Miranda Sommerfield... you may remember her as "Mary", also from "The Women". The real story here is the class war where the maids all gather together, and the society women band together to find out who has written the book, and decide what to do about it. With that collection of stars, this one should be great, but as of September 2009, only 89 votes and 3 plot comments on IMDb. The lesser known Marsha Hunt stars in this MGM short, but it's really an ensemble film. Fun, wacky, screenplay by Isobel Lennart, who also wrote the screenplay for Funny Girl, Please Don't Eat the Daisies, Anchors Aweigh, and soooo many more big time films. You can tell this was originally a play, with all the fast, clever talking. Excellent clear photography and sound. Directed by Jules Dassin, who had worked with Hitchcock. He apparently worked in France after being part of the McCarthy hearings, and was quite successful.

Great Supporting Cast, But Uneven Results

[dougdoepke · 20 December 2014]

A maid's tell-all book threatens to undo an upper-class neighborhood, even as one of the sons and the maid are secretly wed.

Looks like big-budget MGM was responding to wartime audiences with this little programmer. It's decent enough, but can't sustain its comedic air for the 70-minute runtime. That's perhaps because director Dassin's instincts are really not comedic. Instead, he developed into one of the top noir directors of the period, e.g. Brute Force (1947), Thieves Highway (1949). Here, the comedic mood bounces around too often to sustain the format. Then too, writer Lennart has some serious class issues to work into the proceedings.

Nonetheless, it's a dynamite supporting cast, with a number of skillful comedic actors, including Main, Nelson, Joslyn, Weidler et al. Now, I like Richard Carlson, particularly when he's battling space aliens or communists, but a comedy actor, he ain't. Here, he's too stiff to complement the mood, unlike Hunt, for example. Overall, I can't help thinking a longer screenplay giving more time to support players like Main and Hamilton would have helped. But then, a longer runtime would have moved the movie out of the wartime double-bill status.

All in all, the movie components don't combine well enough to make a memorable whole, despite some genuinely promising moments.