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Plot:
- by Zoë
Shaw
Anabel, a saleswoman,
sees Dr. Brown and decides he is for her. She investigates thoroughly until
she knows every detail about him. Dr. Brown knows all about it and resists
until it is too late.
Review:
- by
Emily Dunlap
Where is it written that a man always
has to ask the woman out to dinner? Wouldn't it be nice if the women of this
world asked the men out for a drive only to "accidentally" run out of
gas?
Miss Anabel Sims has always wondered these
things, and when she meets Dr. Madison W. Brown she decides to take action.
Their first meeting takes place when they
both reach for a copy of BETTER BABIES. From then on Madison Brown can't go
anywhere without Anabel Sims close behind, whether it be in the store,
Sanford's, where she works, or a completely accidental ( ;0 ) meeting at the
restaurant,
Pierre's, where he has a routine of going to once every week.
Of course, no movie plot can be this simple.
To complicate the story line we find Anabel with a notion that Madison won't
get marriage on the mind until he's convinced someone else will marry this
young woman that keeps following him around.
So she makes up a story about a suave,
debonair boyfriend that is madly in love with her. Happily, Madison believes
Anabel has this wonderful beau. Unfortunately, he thinks this man is her
boss, Roger Sanford. Who, we might add, loves marriage. Why else do
you think he's had three? (Supposedly, it was because his wives didn't like
marriage. Uh-huh sure!)
Now evolves the story line of entrapment and
love.
Every Girl Should Be Married ends with Anabel
finally deciding upon.... watch the movie to find out!!!
VARIETY
Film Review - November
10, 1948
- by "Herm"
- submitted by Barry Martin
"Every Girl Should Be Married" is one of those rare
comic delicacies that are always in good season at the boxoffice.
Out of that venerable theme of the war between the sexes in
which the femmes are the guileful aggressors, Don Hartman has
fashioned a sparklingly witty comedy of modern manners which will
set off a chain reaction of chuckles.
With Cary Grant topping a superlative cast including
Franchot Tone and a standout newcomer, Betsy Drake, this film will
have a terrific payoff.
Script and direction, both
handled by Hartman, are finely balanced in a clever pace and style
cued for universal appeal. Although
toned in smart dialog and subtle touches within a broad comedy
situation, the pic nevertheless dodges the twin pitfalls of ultra-sophistication
and corny slapstick. Starting
off in a breezy flippancy, it rolls smoothly along in the same key
throughout.
Miss Drake, a fresh personality
with looks and talent who will generate plenty of word-of-mouth
commendation, is the young gal set upon hooking an eligible
bachelor. Accidentally
bumping into Grant in a drugstore, she maps an elaborate pincer
strategy after studiously gathering data on his habits and
habitat. When this
fails in a series of tactical reversals, she switches to piquing
Grant with jealousy, using Tone, the boss of the department store
in which she works, as the foil.
But Grant still refuses to bite, maintaining an amused
indifference that occasionally boils into irritation at the gal's
persistence.
Her inventiveness, however,
finally surmounts Grant's intransigence.
But before she can haul up the marriage license, Miss Drake
is forced to sharpen the hook and pretty the bait.
She enlists the whole town in her campaign to pressure her
man to the altar. At
the windup, she plays the winning trick by hiring a radio actor to
pose as her home town flame coming to take her home.
Grant relents, they clinch and with perfect timing, a
preacher announces himself to work out the wedding details.
In a long part that keeps her
within camera range for the full length of the film, Miss Drake's
performance is a tour de force in the romantic comedy vein.
She displays a remarkable range of expressiveness, going
from pathos to frothiness with firm control.
Grant, handling his lines with appropriate acidity, plays
with skill and wit. Tone,
in a brief role, and Diana Lynn, as Miss Drake's sidekick, both
contribute strong support.
Matching the script's roguish
air, this production is buffed down to a high polish although no
lavish settings are evident. Topnotch
camera work, expert editing and a gay background score integrate
all aspects of this film for maximum impact.
Review:
- by Jeff
Lang
If you're looking for a little more unconventional Cary
movie, Every Girl Should Be Married just may be the choice for you. Cary Grant is Dr.
Madison W. Brown, a pediatrician who happens to show up at the right place, at the right
time. He happens to bump into Anabel Sims, played excellently by Betsy Drake, while
looking at some magazines. Anabel becomes completely infatuated with Madison (Is it that
unimaginable?!) and begins to devise a plan to make him her own, even getting her boss
involved!
This movie is really almost Betsy's. She does such a great
job at playing a woman totally obsessed with Cary (possibly from real life?) that you just
want so bad for her to get what she wants. Cary is delightfully charming as always, yet
can be quite a cad at times. Even if you strongly believe that marriage shouldn't be a
woman's only prerogative, this movie will still charm your socks off.
NEW YORK TIMES Film Review -
December 24, 1948
- by Bosley Crowther
- submitted by Barry Martin
Something nice in the way of a Christmas present is
being delivered via the Capitol Theatre's screen. It's a
brand new and promising young actress by the name of Betsy
Drake. And the picture in which she is appearing - opposite
Cary Grant, no less! - is a pleasant trifle called "Every
Girl Should Be Married," which is a happy thought for
Christmas, too.
Miss Drake's phenomenal ascendance
from obscurity to a leading role is itself a sort of Christmas
story. It seems that she met Mr. Grant while the two were
over in London a couple of years ago. She was playing in the
London company of the American play, "Deep Are the
Roots," and Mr. Grant was reportedly intrigued by her evident
talent and charm.
Anyhow, when she came home to this
country, she went to Hollywood, called Mr. Grant, who arranged a
screen test for her, and - P.S. She got this job.
And it's easy to see why she earned
it. For not only does she display a refreshingly natural
comic spirit in this fanciful girl-gets-boy lark, but she shows a
surprisingly perseverance in pursuing the dictates of the
plot. As a highly resourceful young store-clerk who
diligently and systematically goes about trapping a marriageable
doctor on whom she has settled her choice, Miss Drake is
disarmingly forthright yet frighteningly predatory, too.
Anyone with so much resolution couldn't help but get her man - or
a role.
Withal, she is foxily amusing - and
just a bit poignant, as well - in the clearly contrived
manipulations which the script has arranged for her. Frank
in the manner of moderns, not pretty but glowing with health, and
gaily adroit in her handling of the animal known as man, Miss
Drake gives considerable promise of more formidable triumphs on
the screen.
That wouldn't be too difficult, if
the script which she has in this case were the measure of her
limitations. It's a notably small-scale job in which the
delicate voice of the turtle is heard in more ways than one.
(Perhaps that is why Miss Drake is vaguely reminiscent of Margaret
Sullivan.) One long and generally ingenious pursuit of Mr.
Grant is the substance of the picture which Don Hartman has
written, directed and produced.
As the mere prey in the story, Mr.
Grant is the substance of the picture which Don Hartman has
written, directed and produced.
As the mere prey in the story, Mr.
Grant does his usual polished job of holding himself at arm's
length until the order comes to give in. Diana Lynn, Eddie
Albert and Franchot Tone are very minor in minor roles. It
is three-quarters Miss Drake's picture. And she makes a tidy
little thing of it.
Review:
- by
Kathy Fox
Cary Grant met Betsy Drake, a fledgling actress, aboard the Queen Mary on
his return trip from England in 1947. Drake stayed in New York
with no luck trying to get into the theatre there, and so Cary invited her
to California and took her under his wing and got her a screen test with
Dore Schary. Grant gave Betsy EVERY GIRL SHOULD BE MARRIED and made it
her film, even though she was far down in the credits. They began to
fall in love, and a year later after its debut in 1948 on Christmas Day,
probably at Radio City Music Hall in New York, Cary and Betsy were married
on December 25, 1949. She had taken good care of him when he became
ill while making I WAS A MALE WAR BRIDE and this brought them closer.
This would be Cary's longest marriage, lasting almost thirteen years, but they separated
in 1958, and were not divorced until August 14, 1962. They, however,
remained very good friends. EVERY GIRL SHOULD BE MARRIED, is what
every woman would hope to have happen to her. And no doubt by all
accounts, there should be millions of Cary Grant's walking around for us
gals to marry! Cary plays Dr. Madison Brown who is a pediatrician and
a confirmed bachelor. Betsy plays Julie Hudson, a employee at Roger
Sanford's Department Store. She meets Dr. Brown at the magazine
section of a drugstore and decides that he is the man for her. She
delves into his past, his former lovers, everything that he does on a
day-by-day basis and sets out to trap him. She plays Dr. Brown against
Roger Sanford, making each believe she is interested in the other man, each
of them supplying the necessary competition of course. Betsy and Cary
were dating during this film and their attraction to each other comes across
on the screen. The movie is cute with Cary at his finest. He had
some of the lines rewritten to fit her quirky personality. Girl gets
boy in the end, after bringing a third party, Old Joe, into the picture to
make Madison Brown jealous a second time. Julie pulls out all the
stoppers to get her man. I am pretty sure that when Betsy points to
Mary Nell's picture hanging on the wall, that this is a picture of Betsy
Drake when she was a child. We should all be so lucky to be able to
land Cary Grant, only in our dreams, obviously, though. Naturally,
this is a neat film for the entire family.
Review:
- by Mary Matthews
At the beginning of Every Girl Should Be Married, Annabel Sims’ friend tells her, "You can’t change the world."
"Why not? Why can’t we ask them out? Why can’t we take them for drives in the country?" Anabel asks.
"And run out of gas?" Her friend asks.
"Maybe". Annabel smiles.
Played by Betsy Drake, who in real life costarred in Cary Grant’s longest running marriage, Annabel may lack Grace Kelly’s flawless beauty or Katherine Hepburn’s
aristocratic carriage but she’s like the "Seabiscuit" of Cary Grant costars. She’s a girl
whose quality is mostly in her heart. And her heart wants Dr. Madison Brown, who is of course played by Cary Grant.
"Why I think that’s the most wonderful thing a man can be!" Annabel practically shouts when she learns Dr. Madison Brown is a pediatrician. She assembles data
about Dr. Madison Brown with the zeal of a Goldman Sachs' analyst researching multinational companies. For Annabel, marriage to Dr. Madison Brown is the Holy Grail.
She concocts a plan. If she can convince Dr. Brown, he has a formidable competitor, he will propose. The best formidable competitor is her wealthy boss, played by Franchot
Tone, who believes that she must really want wonderful him and that she’s just using Madison as a ruse to marry her boss.
It’s easy to characterize Annabel as a stalker but I think the movie is a fantasy that should be considered in the context of its time. Every Girl Should Be Married came out
in 1948. Only a few years earlier, WWII ended and women pilots, who had flown proudly for the WASPs, were reduced to flight attendants. Women executives were told to clean out their desks and fetch coffee
for the men who took their jobs. Even though professional doors shut, the seeds of feminism had been sown. Annabel wants to know: Why can’t women just pursue who they want? Just like men do.
Cary Grant’s eyes spark when he looks at Betsy Drake. This movie captures that
how did I get so lucky adoration of two people falling in love.
And when there are problems along the way, Annabel tells her friend: "You know something about being a girl? You just never give up. You take every little defeat and
twist it around and around, until it becomes one great big victory."
Review
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Reviews at the Cary Grant Shrine
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