And So They Were Married (1936)

The Worst Film Ever

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

A divorced woman and a widowed man both with one child ends up at a ski resort at the same time. It will not be long before the man and woman become friends and quickly think of marriage. But the two kids are not getting along. In fact, it is the two kids that seem to want to stop the marriage and practically team-up to break the couple apart. But guess what, after they finally cause the break-up of their parent they seem to have a change of heart. Now the two team-up to see if they can get the two back together.The story just did not have any excitement. The story was straight forward and veered off the topic only a couple of times. And to be honest, it felt like the two main actors, Melvyn Douglas and Mary Astor, just were not interested with the script or with each other. It does not speak highly of the movie when the kids are the best actors in the film.Perhaps the movie would have been better if the two parents would have been someone that the public could relate. Instead they were actually snobby rich adults with maids and cooks that had all the comforts of money. The viewer could not feel any compassion for the two when their plan was to vacation in Europe for months until the meeting at the ski lodge. Was suppose to be a heartwarming love story but felt more like a bothersome tale.

Two terrific actors, Mary Astor and Melvyn Douglas, star in "And So They Were Married," a film from 1936 featuring Jackie Moran, Edith Fellows, and Donald Meek.Astor and Douglas play Edith Farnham and Stephen Blake, a divorcée and a widower, who get off on the wrong foot at a ski resort. Edith's daughter (Edith Fellows) is used to her mother being around all the time, and when she sees Edith warming up to Stephen, she becomes jealous. She and Blake's son (Jackie Moran) decide to break them up by pretending to hate one another.I love Mary Astor and Melvyn Douglas, but I did not enjoy this film. First of all, it had animal abuse played for laughs. Horrendous, and that alone earns it a low score. The children were obnoxious.This was a short film, maybe even a second feature, which seems ludicrous. I'm not a student of Mary Astor's films, but what she was doing in a B movie in 1936 when her star didn't start to fade until a few years later. It's possible she had to do it to fulfill a contractual obligation. Douglas, of course, had only been in films since 1932.Skip it.

This has to be one of the most contrived movies I have ever watched. It just seems way too "set-up" to be anything approaching real (even Hollywood's sense of what "real" is).If that isn't enough, despite being made in 1936, by which time there were more modern approaches to movie making, this film seems much older...perhaps from the 1930-1933 time period.In fact, there is only one good thing I have to say about this film -- there's quite a bit of real outdoor photography, and it's quite good, particularly during winter in the mountains. Unfortunately, the portion of the film inside the lodge (most of the movie) seems staged...in fact it has that feeling of a stilted stage play.The two leads are fine actors -- Melvyn Douglas and Mary Astor. But neither could save this dead fish, and in fact, their performances here are -- in my view -- perhaps the worst of their careers. During the first part of the film, the two take an instant and intense dislike of each other, but it's so excessive that I actually found it annoying. It was very difficult to not simply turn the film off, but I finally decided to continue watching for the most wrong reason there is to watch a movie -- to see just how lousy it really is. The two not only warm up to each other after a while, but fall in love. But it just seems so totally fake! He had a son, she a daughter, and here the female couple are all the more annoying since they have both become man-haters. Unfortunately, the children remained annoying far longer than the adults.I am giving this film one of the very lowest ratings I've posted on this site. Stay away! It's poison!

Recent divorcée Mary Astor (Edith Farham) and daughter Brenda, spend Christmas at a fashionable mountain hotel - ski lodge. At the same time, Melvin Douglas (Stephan Blake) a long time widower arrives awaiting his ten-year-old son, also to spend their Christmas holidays together. Brenda is a man hater, apparently because daddy left her and mommy. When Steve's son (Tommy) arrives both children take an immediate dislike of one another -- to the point of physically beating each other up! Both children can't stand the fact that Edith and Steve are becoming attracted to each other, and both are determined to derail any chance of Steve and Edith becoming a couple. In most romantic 1930's comedies kids are not as mischievous or in fact, as delinquent as this pair is, but it's done in funny ways that keeps the kids from becoming obnoxious. A good cast with fine supporting actors drives this film merrily along. Columbia Pictures was good at making comedies. This is worth a look, if you like that genre.