Editor Reviews:

Product Description:
THE MARRYING KIND reteams Oscar® winner Judy Holliday (Best Actress in a Leading Role Born Yesterday 1950) with Oscar®-- winning director George Cukor (Best Director My Fair Lady 1964) and playwright Garson Kanin along with Ruth Gordon in a groundbreaking blend of comedy fantasy and tragedy which chronicles the relationship of a young couple on the verge of divorce. In the private chambers of Judge Carroll (Madge Kennedy) Florence (Holliday) and Chet Keefer (Aldo Ray in an impressive debut starring role) retrace their bumpy courtship and marriage in flashback. Idealistic young dreamers who meet and marry the Keefers raise two children experience financial woes petty jealousy and seemingly insurmountable heartbreaking loss. The perfect casting of the two leads a hilarious dream sequence excellent use of real New York City locations and realistic and humorous depictions of marital strife add up to superior entertainment. Fresh from the tremendous critical and commercial success of Born Yesterday this role for Holliday proved she was not only a wonderful comedic actress but also excellent with pathos as well. Newcomer Ray formerly employed as a town constable received unanimous critical acclaim and would work next again with director Cukor in Pat and Mike starring Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy.System Requirements:Running Time: 92 Min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: NR UPC: 043396103405 Manufacturer No: 10340

Amazon.com:
From the dour vantage point of divorce court, Florence (Judy Holliday, Born Yesterday) and Chet Keefer (Aldo Ray) recount the tale of their rocky marriage. Despite its jaunty title, The Marrying Kind is a surprisingly realistic portrait of marriage, with all its expectations, disappointments, compromises, fights, and intimacies. Florence and Chet are tested by trouble and loss, but it's finally good fortune that threatens to pull them apart. The judge in their case, however, thinks they should give it another try. Holliday perfected a ditzy/sexy persona that other actresses have emulated but never quite equalled; The Marrying Kind gave her the opportunity to show her dramatic chops. Though she rises to the challenge, the movie is an awkward blend of humor and pathos. Fans of hoarse-voiced palooka Ray will enjoy his equally strong performance in this, his movie debut. --Bret Fetzer

Rating : - Working Class New York in the Fifties
Seen today, The Marrying Kind, a film about a young married couple and the hardships they endure in their marriage, demonstrates how the social safety net used to protect the working class in a way it doesn't today. Florence and Chet Keefer live in a two-bedroom rent-controlled apartment in Peter Cooper Village in Manhattan. Chet's a rough-around-the-edges guy with steady manufacturing job that gives him enough income to support his family, even though he constantly complains about money and dreams of making it big (he's sort of an unfunny Ralph Kramden). Florence is realistic and plain-spoken.

The film has a nice social-realist feel with fascinating location shots of postwar New York City, a more sedate city than today, filled with orderly well-behaved people dressed up in suits, ties, dresses and hats. Chet even puts on a tie before he leaves the plant to go home. After their oldest son drowns at a picnic, Chet is so distraught he walks in front of a truck. His health insurance pays for a month of convalescence and not only does he keep his job, he gets a promotion when he gets back. That doesn't happen to factory workers these days. In the meantime, Florence has gone back to work to help support the family. It looks like she does bookkeeping at the old Fulton Fish Market, another fascinating period touch. At first, Chet grumbles about her working, but then comes around.

The strains of marriage and parenthood wear them down and they decide to get a divorce. A motherly woman judge actually has the time to listen to them talk about their relationship and we learn about their marriage in a series of flashbacks. We're meant to sympathize with the hard life this couple leads, but (outside of the death of their son) by today's standards, their life seems pretty good. They both have steady jobs (Chet's probably in a union), their Manhattan apartment is rent-controlled and affordable and they have good health insurance--a lot of New Yorkers would give anything to live that way today. The film is most striking in the way it sympathetically portrays women workers--Florence, her co-workers and the judge. When Chet complains about Florence going back to work, we can see that he's the problematic one in the marriage. Unlike so many other fifties films, The Marrying Kind doesn't idealize female domesticity.