By Violet Levoit
The Sailor Takes a Wife
Brief Synopsis
A sailor gets more than he bargained for from a quickie marriage.
Cast & Crew
Read More
Richard Whorf
Director
Robert Walker
John [Hill]
June Allyson
Mary [Breckenridge]
Hume Cronyn
Freddie [Potts]
Audrey Totter
Lisa [Borescu]
Eddie "rochester" Anderson
Harry
Film Details
Also Known As
For Better, For Worse, John and Mary
Genre
Comedy
Adaptation
Release Date
Jan
1946
Premiere Information
release: Jan--Feb 1946
Production Company
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Corp.
Distribution Company
Loew's Inc.
Country
United States
Screenplay Information
Based on the play Happily Ever After by Chester Erskine (copyrighted 28 May 1943).
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 31m
Sound
Mono (Western Electric Sound System)
Color
Black and White
Theatrical Aspect Ratio
1.37 : 1
Synopsis
In New York City, on an October night in 1944, John Hill, a sailor from California, shares a carriage ride and a kiss with Mary Breckenridge, a young stenographer he met only six hours earlier. John and Mary are married later the same night, and immediately begin planning the honeymoon they hope to take when John returns from his military base. The following day, Mary tells her boss, Freddie Potts, a pot manufacturer, that she has married a sailor. Although Freddie himself had hoped to marry her, he helps Mary find a new apartment. John returns to the city two days earlier than expected, and tells Mary that he received a medical discharge from the Navy because of a childhood back injury. As the newlyweds settle into their new apartment, they become embroiled in a series of minor disputes, including one angry quarrel that begins when John ridicules Mary's pajamas. One day, John becomes trapped in his apartment building elevator with Lisa Borescu, a beautiful Romanian shop owner. While Harry, the apartment janitor, tries to free the two stranded tenants, John and Lisa become fast friends. Later that afternoon, Lisa tries to help John find an advertising job at a company owned by her wealthy friend, Mr. Amboy. In the hope of impressing John's future boss, Mary invites Mr. Amboy to a home-cooked meal. Freddie and Lisa are also invited to the dinner, and Freddie arrives bearing a gift of pots for the newlyweds. When Mr. Amboy, a plastic pot manufacturer, presents Mary with his company's pots as a gift, Freddie is angered and becomes argumentative with Mr. Amboy. The evening ends in disaster when John trips and accidentally spills the dinner on Freddie and Mr. Amboy. Freddie leaves the dinner party in a rage, and while Mr. Amboy leaves to change his clothes, Lisa tricks John into visiting her in her apartment. There, Lisa flirts with John, gets him drunk and sends him home with lipstick stains on his face. Believing that John is having an affair with Lisa, Mary becomes upset and locks herself in the bedroom. The next day, on Mary's birthday, John tries to make amends with his wife by cooking her dinner and buying her a black lace nightgown. The plan nearly works until a lavish gift sent by Freddie arrives, and John becomes jealous. A quarrel ensues, and Mary goes to Freddie's seeking comfort. John follows Mary to Freddie's, where he threatens to harm Freddie if he continues to meddle in their marriage. All ends happily, though, when Lisa helps John and Mary reconcile, and the couple agrees to put aside their petty quarreling.
Director
Richard Whorf
Director
Cast
Robert Walker
John [Hill]
June Allyson
Mary [Breckenridge]
Hume Cronyn
Freddie [Potts]
Audrey Totter
Lisa [Borescu]
Eddie "rochester" Anderson
Harry
Reginald Owen
Mr. Amboy
Gerald Oliver Smith
Butler
Franklin Pangborn
Salesman
Fortunio Bonanova
Telephone man
Roland Dupree
Delivery boy
Henry Hall
Justice
Anna Q. Nilsson
Clerk
Sara Berner
Elevator girl
Mary Lord
Office worker
Marek Windheim
Headwaiter
Shimen Ruskin
Busboy
Moyna Macgill
Irate woman
Chester Clute
Lone diner
Joe Derita
Waiter
Betsy Stoddard
Mrs. Schlesinger
Harry Tyler
Painter
Eileen Morris
Model in window
Harry Hayden
Auction attendant
Katharine Booth
Pretty woman
Jack Luden
Naval officer
Johnny Lane
Soldier
John Carlyle
Young soldier
Nelson Leigh
Canadian officer
George Sorel
French officer
Martin Garralaga
Brazilian officer
Phillip Pine
Aide
Marie Harmon
W.A.C.
Mary Bovard
W.A.C.
Eugene Sigaloff
Mr. Kabochnick
Mary Jane French
Carla
Lillian Yarbo
Black cook
Jane Green
Crew
Charles J. Burbridge
Unit mixer
Kay Carter
Associate
Anne Morrison Chapin
Screenwriter
Whitfield Cook
Screenwriter
Mark Davis
Matte paintings, Camera
Chester Erskine
Screenwriter
Cedric Gibbons
Art Director
A. Arnold Gillespie
Transparency projection shots
Johnny Green
Music Score
Jack Greenwood
Assistant Director
Irene
Costume Supervisor
Bill Kaplan
Unit Manager
Edwin H. Knopf
Producer
Standish J. Lambert
Re-rec and Effects mixer
Leo Linder
Research Assistant
M. J. Mclaughlin
Music mixer
Warren Newcombe
Special Effects
Ralph A. Pender
Re-rec and Effects mixer
George Richelavie
Research Director
John Schmitz
2nd Camera
Douglas Shearer
Recording Director
Robert W. Shirley
Re-rec and Effects mixer
Newell Sparks
Re-rec and Effects mixer
Herbert Stahlberg
Music mixer
William Steinkamp
Re-rec and Effects mixer
Michael Steinore
Re-rec and Effects mixer
Sidney Wagner
Director of Photography
Irvine Warburton
Film Editor
John A. Williams
Re-rec and Effects mixer
Edwin B. Willis
Set Decoration
Film Details
Also Known As
For Better, For Worse, John and Mary
Genre
Comedy
Adaptation
Release Date
Jan
1946
Premiere Information
release: Jan--Feb 1946
Production Company
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Corp.
Distribution Company
Loew's Inc.
Country
United States
Screenplay Information
Based on the play Happily Ever After by Chester Erskine (copyrighted 28 May 1943).
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 31m
Sound
Mono (Western Electric Sound System)
Color
Black and White
Theatrical Aspect Ratio
1.37 : 1
Articles
The Sailor Takes a Wife
When a fresh-faced USO hostess Mary (June Allyson) and sailor John (Robert Walker) get married at the end of a whirlwind six hour courtship, all will end well, right? Not so much when the sailor's tour of duty is cut short and the new couple has to set up house in a hurry -- especially when a bedtime ends in tears when he makes fun of her frumpy pajamas. Meanwhile, the exotic Romanian shop owner (noir bad girl staple Audrey Totter) invites her new neighbor over for shots of slivovitz. Walker had recently played a soldier in Bataan (1943) and so was fresh in viewer's minds as a soldier. Onscreen, he was an aw-shucks everyman, but off-screen he was a wreck, bedeviled by mental illness, alcoholism, and a broken heart after wife Jennifer Jones left him for producer David O. Selznick. This movie provides a happy marital ending that eluded Walker in real life. (Side note: scenes with African-American actor Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, most famous for playing Jack Benny's butler foil on radio, were excised from some prints in the South because Walker tips his hat to Anderson in one scene.)
By Violet Levoit
By Violet Levoit
The Sailor Takes a Wife
When a fresh-faced USO hostess Mary (June Allyson) and sailor John (Robert Walker) get married at the end of a whirlwind six hour courtship, all will end well, right? Not so much when the sailor's tour of duty is cut short and the new couple has to set up house in a hurry -- especially when a bedtime ends in tears when he makes fun of her frumpy pajamas. Meanwhile, the exotic Romanian shop owner (noir bad girl staple Audrey Totter) invites her new neighbor over for shots of slivovitz. Walker had recently played a soldier in Bataan (1943) and so was fresh in viewer's minds as a soldier. Onscreen, he was an aw-shucks everyman, but off-screen he was a wreck, bedeviled by mental illness, alcoholism, and a broken heart after wife Jennifer Jones left him for producer David O. Selznick. This movie provides a happy marital ending that eluded Walker in real life. (Side note: scenes with African-American actor Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, most famous for playing Jack Benny's butler foil on radio, were excised from some prints in the South because Walker tips his hat to Anderson in one scene.)
By Violet Levoit
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
Working titles for this film were John and Mary and For Better, For Worse.
