Let's make it legal

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Movie
Original title Let's make it legal
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1951
length 77 minutes
Rod
Director Richard Sale
script F. Hugh Herbert ,
IAL Diamond
production Robert Bassler
for 20th Century Fox
music Cyril Mockridge
camera Lucien Ballard
cut Robert Fritch
occupation

Let's Make It Legal is an American comedy film by Richard Sale from 1951. The film, in which Marilyn Monroe played a small role, has not yet appeared in Germany.

action

Miriam and Hugh are on the verge of divorce after their year of separation , which will become final at midnight. It started from Miriam, who felt neglected by her downright gambling and plant-obsessed husband. Hugh has been living in a hotel for a long time, while Miriam still lives with her daughter Barbara, her husband Jerry and their little daughter. Barbara especially enjoys the fact that her mother takes on the wife of Jerry, sews his clothes and looks after her granddaughter. Jerry, however, would like to start a household of her own, but agrees with Barbara's argument that Miriam would suffer too much during the time of separation if she had to live alone. Barbara hopes that Miriam will get together with Hugh again - preferably before midnight, so that the divorce doesn't even become final. While Hugh would like to retreat to his wife and try to re-establish tender bonds, Miriam does not even think about letting the longed-for freedom be taken away shortly before the goal.

The millionaire Victor appears in town, who has the prospect of a high post in politics. He was dating Miriam 20 years ago and suddenly disappeared when she and Hugh became a couple. Now that Miriam is about to divorce, Victor wants to recapture her, and - much to Barbara's displeasure - he is supported by Jerry. Midnight passes and the newly divorced Miriam plunges into the nightlife with Victor. Since she has bet $ 20 with Hugh that she will marry Victor, she consequently agrees to Victor's marriage proposal. Shortly after the wedding, she would have to follow him to Washington, DC , where he was assigned his political post. Victor, however, is called to Washington the night before the wedding and Miriam urges him to finally tell her why he left her in such a hurry: Victor and Hugh had rolled for them and Hugh "won" them.

She returns home angry with Hugh and vows to destroy his beloved rose plants. When Hugh then secretly digs this up at night, he is arrested, Miriam has to pick him up from the station, is photographed by the press as the future wife of the millionaire Victor at the station and thus produces a scandal that could cost Victor the future political office. When Victor showered her with accusations over the phone and demands that she come to Washington only after the excitement has subsided, she breaks up with him on the phone. Hugh, in turn, accuses her of never having loved her because if he had thrown the dice for her, he would have accepted her possible loss. When Hugh proves to her that 20 years ago the dice were manipulated in such a way that he would have won in any case, the two make up.

production

Let's Make It Legal was based on the story My Mother-in-Law, Miriam by Mortimer Braus . The film had its world premiere on October 23, 1951.

Marilyn Monroe can be seen in a few scenes as model Joyce, who wants to catch millionaire Victor and is supported by Hugh. Robert Wagner played his first major role here in the fifth film of his career.

criticism

Frank Quinn of the New York Daily Mirror found Claudette Colbert to have comic talent. “But even they ca n't make Let's Make It Legal as entertaining as one had hoped. As long as she dominates the screen, the comedy has momentum, but as soon as it is her partner's turn it treads on the spot. ”Quinn also criticized the film for“ suffering from a weak script and unbelievable character drawings ”.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Frank Quinn 1951 in the New York Daily Mirror , quoted in after Joan Mellen: Marilyn Monroe. Your films - your life . Heyne, Munich 1997, p. 181.