Every Girl Should Be Married

Basically, what we have here is a film about a young woman whose seemingly only goals in life are to be a dutiful wife (who dreams of cooking intimate dinners for her working husband) and an adoring mother. Yep, it's pretty darn old-fashioned. The one modern twist to the entire film is the promotion of the idea that a woman should be allowed to pursue a man without her character being questioned. However, even this modern twist is considered problematic to us 21st century viewers because this young woman's "pursuit" would undoubtedly today be called "stalking." In fact, if this movie was remade today it would be a Lifetime movie about an obsessed woman in need of a restraining order and psychological counseling.

Yet despite all the above problems, this is a cute little movie. It's a harmless, cotton-candy confection of Hollywood Golden Age escapist entertainment. Betsy Drake stars as "Miss Anabel Sims," a 20 yr old department store employee, who dreams constantly of marrying, settling down in a lovely home, and raising children. One day during lunch in a diner as she reaches for a magazine on child rearing, she literally bumps into "Dr. Madison Brown" who was reaching for the same magazine. When she looks into the face of a man who seemingly shares her interest in small children, Anabel is immediately smitten. (Of course, it helps when the man looks just like Cary Grant!) Her infatuation grows when she discovers that he's not married and a pediatrician. And thus Anabel embarks on her life's mission to marry the good doctor which requires doing research on his entire life, following him around, and involving her playboy boss (Franchot Tone) to hopefully create jealousy. Of course, Dr. Brown, who was quite content in his indepedent bachelor life, initially finds Anabel's constant scheming to ensnare him to be an amusing nuisance, but as time goes on her charms start to do their work on him.

Betsy Drake (who later became Mrs. Cary Grant) has a very cute, girl-next-door charm to her which helps overcome the rather obsessive nature of her character. Cary Grant plays Cary Grant- a suave charmer who is bemused but not really surprised that a woman would go to such lengths to capture him. (My favorite scene with Grant is his doing an imitation of Anabel's annoying greeting: "Oh, Dr. Brown! What surprise meeting you here!" which she uses on numerous occassions as she follows him around.)

Yes, this movie is dated, quaint, and could cause the committed feminist to scream out in rightous indignation: "She should think about herself becoming a doctor and not just a doctor's wife!!" But, overall, "Every Girl Should Get Married" is a cute movie which provides some harmless entertainment in less than ninety minutes.

Of course, Cary Grant pulls off being the reluctant gentleman doctor superbly. Not letting Drake steal the show, he even gets his own dig in through a cute plot twist at the end.

This is not just a great date movie - it's a great group movie that will have both guys and gals laughing at the "tender trap" girls spring on wary males.