I went to Lincoln Center for
“The Discreet Charms of George Cukor” Film Festival.
I’d missed some of the gems already screened, and there are some films I can't see because they interfere with my once-a-week, hen-house, Friday night drinking binge. The next available film to see was
“The Marrying Kind.” I've never seen it, didn’t know what to expect from it, and am not exactly a
Judy Holliday / Aldo Ray fan. ( Ugh! THEM!! )
I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed the movie.
Judy Holliday and Aldo Ray play a married couple who are on the court’s docket to get a divorce. The movie took it’s time to play out, showing us the mundane, day-to-day, routine of married life. It’s about how we love, adore, get bored, don’t listen, keep on keeping on, give up and try try again. It’s the story of two people who’ve lost their way from each other and find their way back again. Holliday and Ray are perfectly matched and well – suited for each other as actors and love interests.
Now truth be told, I had to get used to the sound of their voices; at first blush, he sounds like a raspy dumb jock and she sounds like a whiny dumb blonde. Their sound jars me. But a funny thing happened to me on the way to the film’s conclusion; I got used to the way they spoke...and ultimately found it part of their charm. The movie unfolds easily, allowing me get to know their characters. So after a little while, the
way they sound fades into the background and becomes part of the fabric of these characters. I didn't even notice their voices other than it being part of the charm of their makeup. What I did begin to see is that He is a big loveable teddy bear, a sweet guy; and She is a bit of a chatterbox, but very loving. She defers to him as a Good Wife does ( in my Baby Booming year of 19__ ) and he is the Head of the House ( making mistakes along the way. )
He
is a bit of a dreamer, and a little immature. He has dreams of making it big and she is very supportive. They do as couples do, or did moreso back in the day. He goes to work and she stays home and has children. Things don’t pan out for them as they'd hoped...as they sometimes
don't, for ordinary people. We are looking at Marriage.
We get to look at the deal-making and bargaining and compromising that go on in marriage: preparing for a party, getting ready for bed, the short-hand way a couple communicates when they're in a group. The child actors Cukor uses have a case of the cutes and are a tad over the top in their manic exuberance. But they do sort of match Holliday and Ray's big temperaments.
I like the way Judy Holliday and Aldo Ray speak in the movie. Oh I'm not talking about their sound, but their syntax. This script is written by two of the very BEST in the business:
Ruth Gordon and
Garson Kanin. One has to be able to handle the sparkling champagne dialogue of their very literate scripts. Don’t take this the wrong way, and I don’t mean this to sound condescending but the team brought the high-brow down to the beer barrels with this movie. The dialogue doesn't sound arch and sophisticated because this is the life of an ordinary couple, written by a couple who know the ins and outs and drama of being married and can tailor their craft to fit the occasion.
Screenplays include: “A DOUBLE LIFE” “ADAM'S RIB” &
“PAT & MIKE”
I like how Cukor uses flashbacks and voice-overs. I smile at how their recollections of events is played out. Their recollections don't match the flashbacks shown. It took a moment for me to get that and when I did I had to laugh at the cleverness. I like how their narration as they relay their story to the judge, is dubbed over other actors’ dialogue. I enjoyed how Ray's dream, after a drunken time at a party, gives birth to an idea for a kind of roller skates. Again, I like the technique director Cukor uses to slip us into Ray's dream. We see Aldo riding the Post Office's conveyor belt system, a la Chaplin in “Modern Times.” He gets caught up as a cog in the wheels of machinery. I loved seeing New York City's 1950's locations ( Peter Cooper Village, the main Post Office on 34th Street, Madison Avenue. ) In fact it started to dawn on me and I’ll say it here loud and proud: “The Marrying Kind” is a Woody Allen movie.
What came to life for me was their acting the drama and tragedy and struggle. Ray and Holliday handled those scenes very well. Their voices got down and deep into their gut. These angry scenes thrilled me the most; not that I wanted to see the couple in distress. I thought they were so very sweet together. But I was curious to see how the actors handled them - the yelling, the loss of a child, a disabling accident, a wife returning to work, an inheritance that stokes irrational but understandable jealousy and the egotism and sexism of not being able to be The Provider.
“The Marrying Kind” covers all that. Yes we’ve seen movies about marriage before, but I think the chemistry of Judy Holliday and Aldo Ray makes this movie pretty special. And even better, it made me change my mind about both of them.