The Affairs of Martha (1942)

Load of rubbish!!

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

Producer: Irving Starr. Copyright 7 July 1942 by Loew's Inc. Presented by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Australian release: 28 January 1943. Sydney release at the St James: 20 January 1943. 7 reels. 66 minutes. 5,984 feet. Shooting title and U.K. release title: ONCE UPON A THURSDAY.SYNOPSIS: Maid writes scandalous best-seller.NOTES: Jules Dassin worked at MGM from 1941 to 1946 before joining up with producer Mark Hellinger on Brute Force and The Naked City. He then made Thieves' Highway at Fox — his last U.S. film before the blacklist forced him to flee to Europe and eventual world-wide fame with Rififi.COMMENT: The Affairs of Martha is hardly characteristic of Dassin's work. Nevertheless, his direction is a great deal more assured than on his first feature, Nazi Agent. In fact, for a second feature (in both senses of the adjective), his direction is quite polished.Admittedly he is helped by the efforts of a large, hard-working and agreeable assembly of players, headed by the pleasantly unassuming, mildly vivacious Marsha Hunt, and taking in some fine character people including the redoubtable wicked witch Margaret Hamilton and "Z"-western stalwart, Raymond Hatton. Even when the plot slows down occasionally and dialogue threatens to take over, the film is always attractive to look at. Unlike Nazi Agent it has been treated all over with MGM's best production gloss — bright photography, attractive sets and costumes, smooth film editing — and Dassin's deft, stylish direction. Only the ponderously Mickey Mouse music score strikes an off-note. To sum up: On the whole, an entertaining, enjoyable domestic comedy which has dated surprisingly well.

A maid's tell-all book threatens to undo an upper-class neighborhood, even as one of the sons and the maid are secretly wed. Looks like big-budget MGM was responding to wartime audiences with this little programmer. It's decent enough, but can't sustain its comedic air for the 70-minute runtime. That's perhaps because director Dassin's instincts are really not comedic. Instead, he developed into one of the top noir directors of the period, e.g. Brute Force (1947), Thieves Highway (1949). Here, the comedic mood bounces around too often to sustain the format. Then too, writer Lennart has some serious class issues to work into the proceedings. Nonetheless, it's a dynamite supporting cast, with a number of skillful comedic actors, including Main, Nelson, Joslyn, Weidler et al. Now, I like Richard Carlson, particularly when he's battling space aliens or communists, but a comedy actor, he ain't. Here, he's too stiff to complement the mood, unlike Hunt, for example. Overall, I can't help thinking a longer screenplay giving more time to support players like Main and Hamilton would have helped. But then, a longer runtime would have moved the movie out of the wartime double-bill status. All in all, the movie components don't combine well enough to make a memorable whole, despite some genuinely promising moments.

We open with a narrator describing the quiet, calm life in Rock Bay, where even the horses wear silencers on their hooves to keep the peace. Then we're in the dining rooms of high society, where we find out that SOMEONE's maid has a written a "Tell-all" book about the private goings on in town... Keep an eye out for Spring Byington as the high-society Mrs. Sommerfield, and Margaret Hamilton in a smaller role a couple years after Gone With the Wind.... Grady Sutton is in here as Justin Peacock Jr (he made all those films with W.C. Fields). The awesome Marjorie Main was Ma Kettle, and also a major role in "The Women", is in here as Mrs. McKessic; Virginia Weidler is the daughter Miranda Sommerfield... you may remember her as "Mary", also from "The Women". The real story here is the class war where the maids all gather together, and the society women band together to find out who has written the book, and decide what to do about it. With that collection of stars, this one should be great, but as of September 2009, only 89 votes and 3 plot comments on IMDb. The lesser known Marsha Hunt stars in this MGM short, but it's really an ensemble film. Fun, wacky, screenplay by Isobel Lennart, who also wrote the screenplay for Funny Girl, Please Don't Eat the Daisies, Anchors Aweigh, and soooo many more big time films. You can tell this was originally a play, with all the fast, clever talking. Excellent clear photography and sound. Directed by Jules Dassin, who had worked with Hitchcock. He apparently worked in France after being part of the McCarthy hearings, and was quite successful.

The film begins with a small but very rich town all abuzz because a story appears in the newspaper that one of their servants has written a "tell all" novel. Most of the folks are worried that their own secrets and peccadilloes will be exposed, so everyone seems to be keyed up to say the least.The film then centers on a particular household where Marjorie Main and Marsha Hunt are employed. Unbeknownst to all, sweet Marsha is the author, but no one seems to suspect her in particular. Later, when her boss' son (Richard Carlson) returns from an anthropological expedition, a MAJOR romantic mess is revealed and much of the rest of the film is a cute romantic comedy where it soon is apparent that these two have some unfinished business! The writing, acting and pacing of this little film are all excellent--resulting in a very nice and very watchable film. Considering the modest expectations of this low-budget film, it is a considerable success.