Marriage Is a Private Affair

1944 "WEDLOCK OR PADLOCK??"
5.9| 1h56m| NR| en
Details

Theo has had many boyfriends who wanted to marry her. Since her mother, Mrs. Selworth, has been married many times, Theo is unsure of commitment. Without much thought, she finally accepts the proposal of Air Corps Lieutenant Tom West. After the honeymoon, Tom's father dies and Tom goes into the defense industry. When Theo has a baby, she hates the idea of being matronly and wants to be the old party girl. The problem is that her husband is working constantly. She looks to her friends, who are having their own problems, and to her old flame Captain Lancing. To decide on what she wants to do with her baby and her life, Theo must grow up.

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Reviews

Brightlyme i know i wasted 90 mins of my life.
Whitech It is not only a funny movie, but it allows a great amount of joy for anyone who watches it.
Abegail Noëlle While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.
Scotty Burke It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review
bkoganbing Marriage Is A Private Affair was the first film that Lana Turner did post the birth of her daughter Cheryl Crane. I guess that's what gives the scenes of Turner with her infant son in this film some special poignancy.Turner is an irrepressible flirt, the kind who has to be the center of attention at all times. She gets that from her mother Natalie Schaefer who is on her latest husband Paul Cavanaugh. Schaefer has a Zsa Zsa Gabor like attitude toward marriage which she has passed on to her daughter.But Lana does fall for and marry John Hodiak who is something of an inventor and considered necessary to the war effort so he can't activate his commission and get where the fighting is. They have a kid and it works for a while. But she gets bored and wants to see if she still is attractive even after marriage and childbirth. She tries flirting with flier James Craig to see if she still has it.Marriage Is A Private Affair was also the first film Lana Turner did with billing alone above the title. She does a fine job as a girl who turns into a woman and finally decides to grow up. Her two leads Craig and Hodiak are also well cast in their parts.Also in the cast are Herbert Rudley and Frances Gifford a seemingly happily married couple with some secrets and issues. Gifford is a lot like Turner. Hugh Marlowe is in this as well as a scientist friend of Hodiak's also anxious to get to war. Probably had this film been done in about 10 years at least after the second World War we might have seen Turner more loose and slatternly, but during wartime there was no way Hollywood would show a star like Turner being less than true, flirting yes, but cheating a definite no-no.True blue women is part of what we were fighting for.
atlasmb First let me say that Lana Turner certainly looks beautiful in her role as a woman who has no idea what she wants. Well, she does like to be pursued. And occasionally she likes the idea of marriage.This film is listed under the comedy genre. The few forays into the realm of comedy do not make this a comedy any more than her hallucinatory scenes of past lovers makes this a science fiction film. Actually, the film cannot decide what it wants to be. The swing from lighthearted banter to life-altering urgency and back prevents the viewer from fully investing emotionally in the perils of Theo (Ms. Turner).The only thing to recommend this film are the beautiful people who populate it. And the photography and fashion that frame them. The script must have been worked and reworked a hundred times by numerous scribes. It is so disjointed that in the end it leaves you wondering what it was all about. Yes, there is the neat "there's no place like home"-type attempt to put a neat ribbon on it all, but it rings hollow. Just look at the pretty people and smile.
awdude I liked it. I thought it portrayed the struggles which many of us have. Lana Turner's character is undecided in life about quite a few issues, particularly marriage, though she also seems to have certain ideal views of these subjects. The last half of the movie I thought had the plot thicken so that her ambivalence would indeed make her character get stretched to the testing point. Actually quite a few testing points occur: with longtime boyfriend, husband, girlfriend, etc. After seeing the wreckage in her life and those around her, she does reach some mature decisions.While we each may not have the same marriage commitment problem this movie showed, we can nonetheless use it as metaphor for our other personal struggles.
ensiform The makers of this film had a premise: a woman whose childhood makes her a rather flakey person, a bit unsure of herself, picks one of her many suitors just to see if she can. But from there, the movie forgets drama. Why should she come to embrace marriage? It's not the birth of her son. It's not any one thing that happens to her. There's no plot catalyst in this movie, no psychological edge. It's more like a soap opera, where the characters change for no particular reason.