The Marrying Kind

John Alexander

Howard Shipley

Judy Hollday is on good form here as the petitioning wife "Florrie" who is seeking a divorce from husband "Chet" (Aldo Ray). They are amidst the legal wrangling before a judge when the day ends, and she (Madge Kennedy) gets shot of the lawyers and sits the couple down. Is it really all irredeemable? That question starts them reminiscing about how they met, fell in love and of what drove them to their current situation. It's that journey down their memory lane that works well here. No, I don't suppose there's very much jeopardy but there is a distinct chemistry between the two as we watch their lives unfold in an engaging and often quite amusing fashion. George Cukor captures the trials and tribulations of their domesticity well. The innocuous nature of simple family life, the arrival (and domination) of their kids - all things most will recognise as a family unit lives day by day. It's a tragedy that sets the couple on different tram-lines and again that's delivered quite plausibly. We are spared the detail and neither character descends into the sort of set-piece, alcohol driven, temper tantrum behaviour that is so often the refuge for writers and directors when trauma raises it's head. There's quite a touching little scene with Holliday singing a song on a ukulele that rather sums up the sentiment of this film and I quite enjoyed it.