To appreciate this movie, I had to watch it twice. After one view I was left with the feeling there was something I had missed. I was left with an impression that the film was better than the impression with which I was left. On second view its intent, and its sweetness, came through. My problem, or mistake, was to anticipate a screwball comedy - which is not there essentially. That assumption came naturally, seeing in the cast such names as Melville Cooper, Spring Byington, Marjorie Main and Allyn Joslyn, in minor roles Ernest Truex, Margaret Hamilton and Robin Raymond. "The Affairs of Martha" is not in the mold of "His Girl Friday," "The Lady Eve." It is a romantic comedy, tenderer and more subdued. I found I had also been misled by a plot summary that suggested the story would revolve around a community's frantic reaction to a tell-all book written anonymously in its midst. That is the opening of the film. But it is not the story. I should have taken my cue from the title. It is the story of Martha and her loves. A lovely young woman (Marsha Hunt) relegated to the life of a menial, a domestic, chooses among three men, three destinies. Will she choose the handyman (Barry Nelson) who is (no pun intended) a small-town rake? Will she choose the New York sophisticate (Allyn Joslyn), or the awkward, intellectual son of her employers (Richard Carlson)? Isobel Lennart's plot is simple. But in the hands of these actors, especially the luminous Marsh Hunt, and director Jules Dassin - Marsha Hunt worked with Juley (as she called him in interviews, again in film and he directed her also on stage before they both fell in the blacklist - it becomes a sweet tale that sticks in the memory.
There is an element of social commentary, satirizing the pretentiousness and insularity of the bourgeoisie. Even the ocean waves must mute themselves so as not to ruffle the repose of this community somewhere on the Long Island shoreline. Every household comes equipped with maid and cook. The locals, milkmen and handymen, laugh at the snobs. The domestic servants plot like a revolutionary underground. It is satire. Bit it is genial satire. Martha aims to rise above her allotted fate. Given that she's the stunning Marsha Hunt, it's clear she'll do it. Still, until the end, it is not clear which destiny awaits her. Barry Nelson's rustic lothario would be a downgrade. But he has charm. Allyn Joslyn's city slicker at heart is honest and sincere; life with him might be rewarding. Richard Carlson's bespectacled anthropologist has a touch of Henry Fonda's stumbling herpetologist in "The Lady Eve"about him. Nobody is unlikable. Even the self-important townspeople (deftly incarnated by Spring Byington and Melville Cooper) are only gently ridiculous.We really do care about these people. The ending is happy. Any ending would be happy. It's a happy picture.
Marsha Hunt is magnificent. This may be the only time she saw her name at the top of the credits. That's a shame. Character actress as she was, she refuses to let her character be one-dimensional. She brings out a range of personality. There's a layer of conniving (she is the anonymous authoress), but also defiance (as when she rallies the maids to conspire against their employers), determination (she won't be put upon or deterred from improving her life). Martha has an edge of Katherine Hepburn toughness in her, and also some of the insouciance Jules Dassin later created for Melina Mercouri in "Never On Sunday." Yet there's the naivete of an ingenue. In some of the movie's best scenes Allyn Joslyn wines and dines her in the city's high society. "This is the life I was meant to have," she says. She carries the picture. Among the rest, Allyn Joslyn stands out in one of his more sympathetic roles, the kind he did as a leading man on Broadway, and Virginia Weidler, delightful as usual. It's meant for laughs, but not entirely. "The Affairs of Martha" grows as you watch it. You may have to see it twice. It's worth the time.
There is an element of social commentary, satirizing the pretentiousness and insularity of the bourgeoisie. Even the ocean waves must mute themselves so as not to ruffle the repose of this community somewhere on the Long Island shoreline. Every household comes equipped with maid and cook. The locals, milkmen and handymen, laugh at the snobs. The domestic servants plot like a revolutionary underground. It is satire. Bit it is genial satire. Martha aims to rise above her allotted fate. Given that she's the stunning Marsha Hunt, it's clear she'll do it. Still, until the end, it is not clear which destiny awaits her. Barry Nelson's rustic lothario would be a downgrade. But he has charm. Allyn Joslyn's city slicker at heart is honest and sincere; life with him might be rewarding. Richard Carlson's bespectacled anthropologist has a touch of Henry Fonda's stumbling herpetologist in "The Lady Eve"about him. Nobody is unlikable. Even the self-important townspeople (deftly incarnated by Spring Byington and Melville Cooper) are only gently ridiculous.We really do care about these people. The ending is happy. Any ending would be happy. It's a happy picture.
Marsha Hunt is magnificent. This may be the only time she saw her name at the top of the credits. That's a shame. Character actress as she was, she refuses to let her character be one-dimensional. She brings out a range of personality. There's a layer of conniving (she is the anonymous authoress), but also defiance (as when she rallies the maids to conspire against their employers), determination (she won't be put upon or deterred from improving her life). Martha has an edge of Katherine Hepburn toughness in her, and also some of the insouciance Jules Dassin later created for Melina Mercouri in "Never On Sunday." Yet there's the naivete of an ingenue. In some of the movie's best scenes Allyn Joslyn wines and dines her in the city's high society. "This is the life I was meant to have," she says. She carries the picture. Among the rest, Allyn Joslyn stands out in one of his more sympathetic roles, the kind he did as a leading man on Broadway, and Virginia Weidler, delightful as usual. It's meant for laughs, but not entirely. "The Affairs of Martha" grows as you watch it. You may have to see it twice. It's worth the time.