When old-timers say that the B-movies of their day were oftentimes superior to the so-called A-movies of today, "Married Before Breakfast" would make a good Exhibit A. This brisk, gloriously loopy, screwball comedy has more laughs than all three "Austin Powers" combined. It's sort of a "Bringing Up Baby"/"After Hours" hybrid with the male in this case (an infectiously optimistic Robert Young) the lovable screwball who turns the world into his own personal circus and everyone he meets into a clown - including gangsters, bus drivers, and of course, police desk sergeants.
He plays a fast-talking inventor whose ship finally comes in to the tune of $250,000 who is as generous with his fortune as many of us dream we would be were we in his shoes. His biggest challenge is a pretty travel agent he's just met (pretty Florence Rice, who has a Ginger Rogers quality about her) who admits that what she really wants to is to be married - presumably to her longtime fiancé (a very young Hugh Marlowe) a bit of a stuffed shirt who has been told by his company that he'll only receive a big promotion - and thus become marriageable - if he can sell an insurance policy to an intractable local milkman. But Young is scheduled to set sail with and marry his snobbish longtime fiancée (June Clayworth) first thing next morning, so he dedicates his last night as a bachelor to convincing the milkman to sign the insurance policy, enabling Marlowe and Rice to marry. But when Rice insists that she tag along to lend a hand, Marlowe's and Clayworth's nights become a living hell, and the movie ascends into screwball comedy heaven on the wings of kindred spirits Young and Rice.
Director Edwin Marin handles the material masterfully, and the two leads have marvelous chemistry, particularly in a brilliantly written scene where they are forced to hide from the cops in a cramped janitor's closet ("Are your eyes really green or is that just the light?" Young asks her) that crackles with sexual tension and reminds one of Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed sharing the phone in "It's a Wonderful Life." "Married Before Breakfast" is a smart, very funny little gem that holds up extremely well 68 years after the fact.
He plays a fast-talking inventor whose ship finally comes in to the tune of $250,000 who is as generous with his fortune as many of us dream we would be were we in his shoes. His biggest challenge is a pretty travel agent he's just met (pretty Florence Rice, who has a Ginger Rogers quality about her) who admits that what she really wants to is to be married - presumably to her longtime fiancé (a very young Hugh Marlowe) a bit of a stuffed shirt who has been told by his company that he'll only receive a big promotion - and thus become marriageable - if he can sell an insurance policy to an intractable local milkman. But Young is scheduled to set sail with and marry his snobbish longtime fiancée (June Clayworth) first thing next morning, so he dedicates his last night as a bachelor to convincing the milkman to sign the insurance policy, enabling Marlowe and Rice to marry. But when Rice insists that she tag along to lend a hand, Marlowe's and Clayworth's nights become a living hell, and the movie ascends into screwball comedy heaven on the wings of kindred spirits Young and Rice.
Director Edwin Marin handles the material masterfully, and the two leads have marvelous chemistry, particularly in a brilliantly written scene where they are forced to hide from the cops in a cramped janitor's closet ("Are your eyes really green or is that just the light?" Young asks her) that crackles with sexual tension and reminds one of Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed sharing the phone in "It's a Wonderful Life." "Married Before Breakfast" is a smart, very funny little gem that holds up extremely well 68 years after the fact.