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| The Doctor Takes A Wife - 1940 |
Coming up next is 1940's "The Doctor Takes A Wife", a film about two people who are forced to portray themselves as a married couple for the benefit of their respective careers. While showing themselves as a happy couple, in reality they can't stand one another.
The film's cast includes Loretta Young, Ray Milland, Reginald Gardiner, Gail Patrick, Edmund Gwenn, Georges Metaxa, Irving Bacon, and Charles Lane.
Successful author June Cameron and Dr. Timothy Sterling, a teacher of neuro psychiatry, are forced to share a ride together from Massachusetts to New York City. The couple have completely opposite ideas about the roles of men and women. June has just written a book celebrating women who choose to remain single.
During a stop on the way home, their car is mistakenly attached with a "Just Married" sign. Naturally, because June is famous, it raises some serious interest, and someone alerts the newspapers.
Once in New York, June and Tim have a spat about who should pay for what. He insists that she cough up half of the money spent on the trip. She refuses. Tim decides to have a few drinks at her expense as a way of making her pay. Naturally, he gets drunk and passes out.
June's publisher arrives and so does a reporter and photographer. Having been tipped off in advance and arriving to see a man in her bedroom, they naturally put two and two together and come up with four. Only June's publisher, John, believes her.
Knowing that a story about her marriage will kill June's book, they've got to think up something fast. John tells her to keep up with the pretense of the marriage so that she can write a book about how wonderful the institution is. Reluctantly, she agrees. They just have to convince Tim.
Initially, Tim wants no part of it. However, when the story breaks, he is offered a promotion at work because of the fact he got married. Not wanting to turn down the job, he decides to keep up the charade.
He returns to June's apartment, where they hammer out the details of this "marriage". It's agreed that after a specified period of time June will go to Reno to get a "divorce".
Only one person has some trouble with the idea. That's Tim's fiancée Marilyn. She gets a copy of the newspaper before Tim has a chance to explain the situation.
Married life and private life start to encroach on one another. Tim and June have to host a gaggle of fellow psychiatrists at their apartment, while at the same time Tim has to entertain Marilyn at an empty apartment next door.
It's hilarious to watch him bounce back and forth between the two apartments, always entering and exiting through the kitchen window.
Eventually, living with one another causes great strain. Each tries to manipulate the other into keeping up the charade. After June gets angry at Tim, she says, "Now, you listen to me, my microscopic friend,
you might be able to give orders to that barnacle you’re
engaged to. But the last time a man tried it on me, I was six
and he was seven, and for one solid hour I beat him over the head with
my all-day sucker!"
At the start of a weekend trip to a fellow psychiatrist's place, June and Tim continue to bicker. "You know, Johnny and I were discussing only yesterday how quietly repulsive you are," she says.
They never make it to the psychiatrist's house. A policeman pulls them over because he notices that Tim's license plates tell that he is a doctor. There is an emergency he's needed at. A woman is having a baby, her husband has broken his foot, and there is no doctor around to help. Tim gets right to work, and June becomes his assistant.
The two of them start to realize their feelings for one another are turning to love.
By the time that they can separate and get on with their lives, both June and Tim are reluctant to end the relationship. However, both stick to the bargain they made. June makes plans to go to Reno, while Tim plans to go to a party hosted by Marilyn, where she intends to announce their engagement.
After he leaves, June gets a visit from a reporter who threatens to reveal that they were never married and the whole thing was a sham. If she can prove that she and Tim are really married by midnight, then he won't print the story. June has to do some quick thinking and fast work to stop Marilyn from announcing the engagement.
After a little misunderstanding, Tim is more than happy to marry June, this time for real and for keeps.
Cast rundown:
Loretta Young.............................June Cameron
Ray Milland.................................Dr. Timothy Sterling
Reginald Gardiner........................John Pierce
Gail Patrick.................................Marilyn Thomas
Edmund Gwenn...........................Dr. Lionel Sterling
Georges Metaxa..........................Jean Rovere
Irving Bacon...............................Sam Appleby
Charles Lane...............................Reporter
And that's it for The Doctor Takes A Wife. Before its release, the working title for this film was "As Good As Married", and it was intended that Cary Grant and Irene Dunne would be the stars. This film works brilliantly with the casting of Loretta Young and Ray Milland. They have such great chemistry. Also, snappy dialogue is always a plus in my book.
