The Marrying Kind

Aside from the acting and the story, there are several other things that I found especially fascinating about the film: first, the use of real New York City locations from the early 50s--it is amazing how much the city has changed in 50 years! Second, the movie's portrayal of working-class, urban marriage feels extremely real and accurate for that era (other than their very roomy apartment), and because of that, it offers an intriguing window into that time period. Finally, I was very taken by the style of the dialogue. Not being either an expert on linguistics or the writing history of playwrights Garson Kanin and Ruth Gordon, I couldn't be sure if they were merely being stylistic, or if they intended to offer a very accurate portrayal of a specific New York dialect. Whichever it is, the protagonists speak in a very unique way, with certain words left out in their sentences and others repeated--which gives an entertaining regional flavor to the script.

This movie is not rated, but by today's standards it would be a G--no sex or bad language. However, I believe children would be bored by this movie as would, very likely, most men. This is pretty much a classic "chick flick," since its entire focus is on the courtship and marriage relationship between a man and a woman.