Film foux

Yesterday I rediscovered a 1948 cinematic masterpiece. Every Girl Should Be Married, staring Cary Grant and Betsy Drake is the hilarious comedy of a deranged Anabel Sims, (Drake, clearly an inspiration for Single White Female), determined to marry a gay man, Dr. Madison Brown (Grant). Throughout the film we witness the numerous and creative ways Anabel stalks Madison, no matter how hard he trys to explain to her he’s not in love with her or how firmly committed he is to his “bachelorhood” (i.e. homosexuality). One particularly comedic moment takes place at a lecture Dr. Brown delivers to a hall of feather-hat’ed mothers, to which Anabel has followed him. There, it is revealed to Madison that women are actually quite crafty creatures who usually must trick their would-be husbands into marrying them in a rather roundabout way, as women aren’t allowed to walk up to men and say “How ‘bout those big brown eyes and lets go bowling on Thursday”. He is appalled, and storms out on the maniacally cackling mothers.
The film finishes with Madison conceding to defeat and agrees to marry Anabel (presumably to protect the public from la femme psychopathe) and admits that he was quite impressed by her tenacity and imagination. Besides, after they have a kid, they’ll never have to have sex ever again and he won’t need to try so hard to keep the door to the closet shut.
The moral of this film is that in the 1940’s, no matter what, a woman can wear down any man into marriage, no matter how much he loves his freedom or how gay he is. The institution of marriage shall overcome, after all, Every Girl Should Be Married.
Okay. I’ve clearly been a bit imaginative with my interpretation of this movie but in all honesty it is quite funny, both by 1948 standards and today’s simply because you can read it as I have. I’d recommend this one for any lazy afternoon. For a different take on this film, check out Amy's Classic MovieBlog.