User Reviews

I'm wondering if this was unintended pilot for a TV series that never came to fruition starring Michael Callan, Ann Prentiss and Eve Arden, the saga of a marriage bureau that is not licensed and they're running around trying to fix all the unmarried couples they've united in wedded bliss. Well bliss isn't exactly the word. Some of these couples aren't really ready to be remarried legally and it's up to the three to change their minds.

It might as well have been a third season of "Mothers-in-Law" where Kaye Ballard and Arden show up to sing "Oh Promise Me" or "Because" just as they had on that two season sitcom. Eve is basically playing the same character, and she is as caustic and intrusive as she and Kaye were with their offspring. With the variety of 60's and early 70's countercultures, it certainly could have been a colorful group of guests to fill out at the most half a season before running out of steam.

It's a wild bunch of real oddball characters, starting with Bill Dailey who finds that he still has an eye for the ladies upon learning that he's not really married and his starry-eyed wife, Elinor Donahue. Then there's an argumentative couple of hippies with the groom's oddball mother, Elsa Lanchester, sticking her nose in everywhere, much like Arden and Ballard did. Ruth Buzzi and Herb Edelman deal with her wealthy, domineering father Alan Reed in a plotline that could have led to "The Father's in Law".

So you get a mixed bag of situations, none of them really gems, but it's always interesting to see the plethora of guest stars that shows like this had. Historically, it's not really interesting although Edelman and Buzzi are funny with Edelman a real hoot in his Beatles wig. This is very similar to the 1952 all star movie comedy "We're Not Married" which ironically featured Arden. Even at 75 minutes, it does seem a bit over long because two of these situations are enough and it doesn't have enough starry power or big studio gloss.