"Married Before Breakfast" has perhaps one of the most contrived and ridiculous plots I've seen in a Hollywood film of the 1930s. In order to enjoy the film, you need to turn off your brain. Otherwise, you can't help but wonder why you're even watching the picture.
The film begins with Tom (Robert Young) demonstrating his latest invention to the board of a razor blade company. It's a lotion that dissolves beards--making shaving unnecessary. They decide to pay him $250,000 just so he WON'T market the cream.
Later, at a dinner party thrown by Tom for his various friends, he gives them all expensive presents. It's nice to see that he's decided to share some of his wealth. However, what happens next makes no sense and makes the movie hard to endure. When a woman from the travel agency interrupts his party to bring him tickets for a honeymoon cruise, Tom INSISTS that he do something nice for the lady. She tells him that her fiancé is trying to sell some milkman an insurance policy--and Tom leaves his party and ignores that he's supposed to be going to meet his new in-laws to-be--all in order to help a total stranger. However, selling the man on the policy ends up being very difficult and the pair spend the evening on all sorts of kooky adventures--including becoming mixed up a mob robbery, being chased by the police and more. At no point does Tom just give up and do what any sane man would do--and that is the biggest problem with the film. Suspension of disbelief is possible to a point. But when people behave irrationally again and again, it's really hard to stick with the film. Plus, who would imagine two people engaged to two other people spending all this time together?! Plus, in Hollywood cliché tradition, you KNOW that by the end of the movie the mismatched pair will decide to marry instead--even though they know NOTHING about each other. Unless they both are insane or suffer from traumatic brain injuries, there's no accounting for this.
If it sounds like I didn't like the film, you are correct. I think Young was way too good for this material and the film went from being fun and quirky to just plain dumb. Not a particularly good film but despite this one of the reviewers said they wanted to see this film again and they were looking for a copy. Well, it is shown periodically on Turner Classic Movies--and I just saw it on this channel.
The film begins with Tom (Robert Young) demonstrating his latest invention to the board of a razor blade company. It's a lotion that dissolves beards--making shaving unnecessary. They decide to pay him $250,000 just so he WON'T market the cream.
Later, at a dinner party thrown by Tom for his various friends, he gives them all expensive presents. It's nice to see that he's decided to share some of his wealth. However, what happens next makes no sense and makes the movie hard to endure. When a woman from the travel agency interrupts his party to bring him tickets for a honeymoon cruise, Tom INSISTS that he do something nice for the lady. She tells him that her fiancé is trying to sell some milkman an insurance policy--and Tom leaves his party and ignores that he's supposed to be going to meet his new in-laws to-be--all in order to help a total stranger. However, selling the man on the policy ends up being very difficult and the pair spend the evening on all sorts of kooky adventures--including becoming mixed up a mob robbery, being chased by the police and more. At no point does Tom just give up and do what any sane man would do--and that is the biggest problem with the film. Suspension of disbelief is possible to a point. But when people behave irrationally again and again, it's really hard to stick with the film. Plus, who would imagine two people engaged to two other people spending all this time together?! Plus, in Hollywood cliché tradition, you KNOW that by the end of the movie the mismatched pair will decide to marry instead--even though they know NOTHING about each other. Unless they both are insane or suffer from traumatic brain injuries, there's no accounting for this.
If it sounds like I didn't like the film, you are correct. I think Young was way too good for this material and the film went from being fun and quirky to just plain dumb. Not a particularly good film but despite this one of the reviewers said they wanted to see this film again and they were looking for a copy. Well, it is shown periodically on Turner Classic Movies--and I just saw it on this channel.