Don Hartman directed Every Girl Should Be Married, a romantic comedy, starring Cary Grant, Betsy Drake (his future real-life wife) and Franchot Tone.
Grade: C+ (** out of *****)
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Our Grade: C+ (** out of *****)
The pedestrian script of what became one of Grant’s weakest films artistically, was based on short story written by Eleanor Harris in October 1947 edition “Ladies’ Home Journal.”
Department store salesclerk Anabel Sims (Betsy Drake) would like to get married; she’s actually obsessed with the idea. So when handsome pediatrician Dr. Madison Brown (Cary Grant) asks for her help in making a purchase, she’s determined to get him.
Madison seems to be happy as a bachelor, but Anabel is determined, learning everything about him, where he went to school, his favorite foods. Madison soon realizes her intentions and fends her off.
Anabel makes a reservation at a restaurant, knowing that Madison habitually dines there. In an attempt to make him jealous, she pretends to be waiting for wealth playboy Roger Sanford (Franchot Tone), who’s her employer; but he’s also Madison’s university classmate.
Roger believes that she is using Madison as a ruse to get acquainted with him. However, the scheme fails, and Madison’s feelings remain unchanged.
Nonetheless, Roger falls in love with her, and eventually asking her to marry him. When Anabel’s best friend Julie (Diana Lynn) warns Madison, he begins to worry, knowing of Roger’s success with women.
One eve, while waiting for Anabel, they are unexpectedly joined by “Old Joe” (Eddie Albert), Anabel’s longtime hometown beau, who announces their marriage. Madison congratulates them, but after second thought, he makes his own bid for her hand.
In the end Joe bows out, and after leavings, Madison informs Anabel that her research on him was incomplete. All along, he recognized “Joe’s” voice from the radio show he listens to frequently.
Cary Grant married Betsy Drake, his third wife in real life, one year after the film’s release. Drake was a stage actress with no film credits, but Cary Grant convinced Dore Schary, head of RKO Pictures, to sign her to a contract.
Barbara Bel Geddes was initially intended to play Anabel Sims, but Grant wanted Drake to play the role.
The film was a positive experience for Grant and Drake, but Hughes’ excessive interference led to Schary abrupt resignation from RKO. Hughes then allowed Grant to rewrite the script, and shift the film’s focus from his character to Drake’s.
Though overly conventional and lacking any humor, the film was RKO’s most commercial production of 1948, making $775,000 in profits.
Grant and Drake reprised their roles in a Lux Radio Theatre broadcast held on June 27, 1949.
Drake’s last screen appearance was in the documentary film Cary Grant: A Class Apart (2005), in which she reflected on Grant, denying rumors that he was bisexual.
In July 1956, Drake survived the sinking of the Italian ocean liner SS Andrea Doria. At the time, she had been visiting Grant in Spain and was returning to the US. She boarded the Doria, along with other wealthy travelers at Gibraltar, one of many stops the ship made on the way to the final destination of New York. When the Doria collided with the Stockholm, Drake waited with for rescue. She was among more the 700 people rescued by the famed French passenger liner Île de France.
Drake wrote the original script for the film Houseboat (1958), set to star Grant and herself. However, Grant began affair with the sexy Sophia Loren while filming The Pride and the Passion (1957), and he arranged for Loren to take Drake’s place in Houseboat, with a rewritten script for which Drake did not receive credit. The affair ended in bitterness before The Pride and the Passion’s shoot ended, causing problems on the Houseboat set.
Grant and Drake separated in 1958, remaining friends, and divorced in 1962. Their marriage was Grant’s longest union. He credited her with broadening his interests beyond his career and with introducing him to the then-legal LSD therapy and to hypnosis. Drake took LSD as a way of recovering from the trauma of divorce. She had no children with Grant and never remarried.
Drake spent the latter part of her life in London, where she died aged 92 on October 27, 2015.
Filmography
Every Girl Should Be Married (1948) as Anabel Sims
Dancing in the Dark (1949) as Julie Clarke
The Second Woman (1950) as Ellen Foster
Pretty Baby (1950) as Patsy Douglas
Room for One More (1952) as Anna Rose
Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957) as Jenny Wells
General Electric Theater as Ellie (one episode, 1958)
Intent to Kill (1958) as Dr. Nancy Ferguson
Next to No Time (1958) as Georgie Brant
Clarence, the Cross-Eyed Lion (1965) as Julie Harper
Cast
Cary Grant as Dr. Madison W. Brown
Franchot Tone as Roger Sanford
Diana Lynn as Julie Hudson
Betsy Drake as Anabel Sims
Alan Mowbray as Mr. Spitzer
Elisabeth Risdon as Nurse Mary Nolan
Richard Gaines as Sam McNutt
Harry Hayden as Gogarty
Chick Chandler as Harry, the Soda Clerk
Leon Belasco as Violinist
Fred Essler as Pierre, the Restaurant Owner
Anna Q. Nilsson as Saleslady
Eddie Albert as Harry Proctor, aka “Old Joe” (uncredited)
Credits:
Produced, directed by Don Hartman
Written by Don Hartman, Eleanor Harris (story), Stephen Morehouse Avery (Script collaboration)
Music by Leigh Harline
C. Bakaleinikoff
Cinematography George E. Diskant
Edited by Harry Marker
Distributed by RKO Pictures
Release date: November 9, 1948
Running time: 85 minutes
Box office $2.8 million
Note:
TCM showed this movie on January 4, 2021.
