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We're Not Married
Description by Bruce Eder

We're Not Married (1952) is a genial, episodic comedy based on a good idea; it is adapted from a story by Jay Dratler (best known for his thrillers) and Gina Kaus, and was directed by Edmund Goulding. It's also something of a history lesson for pop-culture mavens, as it co-stars Victor Moore and Fred Allen, stars (actually a mega-star in Allen's case) of a bygone entertainment age. The movie involves five couples -- played by Fred Allen and Ginger Rogers, Eddie Bracken and Mitzi Gaynor, Zsa Zsa Gabor and Louis Calhern, Eve Arden and Paul Douglas, and David Wayne and Marilyn Monroe -- who discover two and a half years after the fact that the ceremonies at which they were married were invalid. Monroe is a supporting player in the movie; the main focus is the radio-star couple played by Allen and Rogers, who find that they can't afford not to be married. The 85-minute black-and-white movie has been well transferred in full-screen (1.33:1) from an extremely clean source that is rich in contrast and detail. The film has been divided into a more than adequate 16 chapters, and has been supplemented with the original trailer, which looks good and makes the movie seem more briskly paced than it actually is. The only real problem is the audio, which has been mastered at such a low level that it may be necessary for viewers to drastically boost the volume on their televisions to get reasonable sound levels. The disc opens automatically on a two-layer menu that includes easy access to the trailer and individual scenes.

Features
  • Original trailer
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