Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Quiet Gem, February 16, 2001
George Cukor, Garson Kanin and Ruth Gordon were the best kind of fans for Judy Holliday; they made it possible for her to create great roles in wonderful pictures. From her carefully-sheparded movie debut in a supporting role in ADAM'S RIB (where Katherine Hepburn graciously yielded the screen to Judy's comic talents) to her Oscar-winning turn repeating her Broadway success in BORN YESTERDAY, Holliday gave us an unforgettable gallery of women, and her work was never finer than in THE MARRYING KIND. Matched with Cukor's protoge (ahem!), Aldo Ray, Judy is remarkable in this role, playing an ordinary housewife whose marriage is on the brink of dissolving. Her big scene in the park mid-picture is a perfect example of her unique ability to make you laugh and break your heart in quick succession. Lovely, lovely work from all concerned, and an extremely rewarding small movie that casts a big shadow.
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25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Holiday in New York, October 19, 2000
The Marrying Kind, starring Judy Holiday and Aldo Ray, is another terrific collaboration between director George Cukor and the husband and wife writing team of Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin. These guys brought you Adam's Rib and Pat and Mike, among other wonderful battle of the sexes smart thoughtful comedies of the 40's and 50's.The film uses a Rashamon techinique and a flashback structure to tell the story of the courtship and marriage of two middle class New Yorkers (he works for the post office but has big dreams, she's an office assistant but upon marriage, becomes a homemaker and mom)and was shot on location in 1950's New York. It begins in divorce court and proceeds to show you how these two met, fell in love and plain just got by over the period of several years. It was Judy Holiday's first starring role. She is funny and charming and gutsy and real. The great surprise,,however(though he showed great comic skills as the boxer in Adam's Rib), is Aldo Ray, later the stolid solider in many a WW II epic. Here he portrays the sweet, hardworking, loving dreamer who marries Judy, tries to give her a better life, but continually falls short of reaching those dreams. The film has an almost American neo-realistic feel about it. It's a sweet, comic, sometimes dramatic, slice of life. Scenes have true comedic power and Holiday and Ray are wonderfully believable together. The dialogue has the unmistakable Gordon-Kanin ring of truth. An excellent and mostly unknown gem.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Judy Holliday in pleasant, light drama, December 27, 2003
I am a big fan of Judy Holliday's romantic comedies from the 1950's and own Born Yesterday, It Should Happen to You (with Jack Lemmon in his first movie appearance), The Solid Gold Cadillac, and Bells Are Ringing (with Dean Martin). I was expecting The Marrying Kind to also be a comedy, and I was disappointed to find out that it consists far more of pathos than comedy. It shows in flashbacks the decline of the 7-year marriage of a couple on the verge of divorce, and nowadays we might call this film a "dramedy." However, once I'd adjusted to the fact that I wasn't watching Judy in all-out comedy, I enjoyed the movie for what it is. Particularly that it centers almost completely around the relationship (and interactions) of the two main characters, Florence (Judy) and Chet Keefer (Aldo Ray). Because they are on stage alone together most of the movie, it really showcases their individual talents as actors, and they work extremely well together as a dramatic pairing.Aside from the acting and the story, there are several other things that I found especially fascinating about the film: first, the use of real New York City locations from the early 50s--it is amazing how much the city has changed in 50 years! Second, the movie's portrayal of working-class, urban marriage feels extremely real and accurate for that era (other than their very roomy apartment), and because of that, it offers an intriguing window into that time period. Finally, I was very taken by the style of the dialogue. Not being either an expert on linguistics or the writing history of playwrights Garson Kanin and Ruth Gordon, I couldn't be sure if they were merely being stylistic, or if they intended to offer a very accurate portrayal of a specific New York dialect. Whichever it is, the protagonists speak in a very unique way, with certain words left out in their sentences and others repeated--which gives an entertaining regional flavor to the script. This movie is not rated, but by today's standards it would be a G--no sex or bad language. However, I believe children would be bored by this movie as would, very likely, most men. This is pretty much a classic "chick flick," since its entire focus is on the courtship and marriage relationship between a man and a woman.
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