Slightly Married

An undernourished romance, "Slightly Married" clunks along at an uneven pace, milking various gimmicks until its long-delayed but telegraphed conclusion.

The obscure leads are merely competent in roles that required a lot more talent and charm to put over. Of course, the subject matter mocking class distinctions and naughtiness (prostitution, unwed motherhood, etc.) grabs one's attention but is merely a source of sentimentality. Crudest gimmick is to give over the movie almost entirely to the earthy, amusing Marie Prevost for the final reel or so, after introducing her in merely a cameo in the very first scene. It's a glaring sort of "hail mary" pass to try and save a movie that's run out of gas.

Using the Peter Principle, director Richard Thorpe was kicked upstairs to handling impersonal projects with big stars at MGM.

Slightly married is a mixture of comedy, drama and tragedy. Richard Thorpe, who seems to have directed every poverty row feature in the early 30s, shows his professionalism in pulling this mixture off. It could have been bathos, but it isn't. It could have been ridiculous, but it isn't. And it could have been horrifying but it isn't. Instead, it's a programmer that rises above standard fare. The subject is handled with taste and delicacy. The leads are more than adequate to carry it off. Despite the improbability of the situation, the film is believable, and worth watching..

When drunken Walter Byron claims to be the man Evalyn Knapp was waiting for on a street corner on order to get her out of a charge for prostitution, they may wind up married, but there is the usual ruckus when a rich young man marries a girl from the wrong side of the tracks. The leads have a great deal of chemistry to enliven this poverty row second feature, but the script loses its way about the half-way mark, uncertain what to do when they realize they love each other, but they have their pride -- and Byron won't come into his own money for a couple of years.

Nor is this the sort of material that director Richard Thorpe is particularly good with. There is some real talent in supporting roles, including Jason Robards Sr. as Byron's friend who tries to move in when Byron leaves, and Marie Prevost comes in towards the end to try to buffer the plot and offer some comedy, but after the first twenty minutes, the movie loses steam and never recovers.

Only us hardcore pre-code movie fans will be able to watch this, the rest of the population will think its poorly written derivative nonsense but even we will consider this scraping the bottom of the bootleg beer barrel. For a 'poverty row' picture, it's not too bad but neither is it too good. It can't decide whether it's a light-hearted romance or a hard-hitting indictment on society, so it ends up not firing on any cylinders.

It begins with the crazy premise that a rich playboy if he was drunk would marry a pretty prostitute on the spot to save her going to jail. This isn't as absurd as it sounds - unbelievably this was a real law. After that it settles down into lazily copying every single trope and clichéd story and stereotype Hollywood had back then. So we get the usual culture clash of the spoilt rich playboy and his new wrong side of the tracks wife, the usual "all the rich are prejudiced snobs" sort of thing, a comedy butler, a wise-cracking side kick and the inevitable happy ending you can virtually write the script for after seeing just ten minutes of this. If you're used to pre-code movies, you will probably enjoy this - it's not boring but it's staggeringly un-special and monumentally un-memorable.

Besides a vaguely original story (except for the beginning of course), any sign of emotion and a script that sounds like actual human beings could speak it, the main thing that's missing is outrage. Those really good pre-coders which got your blood boiling with their over-the-top melodramatic biting, savage criticism of society which Zanuck at Warner Brothers was so good at is missing here. This just chugs along without stirring you at all. It doesn't even evoke any feelings for one of its little incidents.....in the 1670s, it was prescribed into law that a man cannot be guilty of raping his wife. Only in the last few decades have most countries repealed this but, when you watch this, you'll see that in the 1930s, marital rape was actually considered a subject for a light comedy drama. That this would have been watched by men and women smiling to themselves hoping that the attacker and his victim will fall in love and live happily ever after really says something about the way we were.

Overall, it's a bit rubbish but it is annoyingly watchable and that really is because of the two lead characters. Despite the atrocious dialogue, they kind of engage with you: Walter Byron's 'Jimmy' is a complete caricature but is nevertheless likeable (a loveable sex offender). Evalyn Knapp, although she doesn't look healthy in this (she's not so painfully skinny in her other pictures) is sweet, lovely and instantly likeable but lacks the sassiness and charisma to pull the role off completely (a sweet and innocent sex worker).

So just lower your expectations and sit back.