the audience applauded

How sad is this?

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Copyright 22 July 1944 by Loew's Inc. A Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer picture. New York opening at the Capitol: 26 October 1944. U.S. release: October 1944. Australian release: 26 April 1945. 10,444 feet. 116 minutes.SYNOPSIS: Lana played Theo Scofield, a New York playgirl, who "spends her winters in Miami and her summers in Reno," the latter while waiting for the next divorce of her much-married mother who tells her daughter "the first marriage, at least, should be romantic." On this theory, Theo marries Tom West, a fighter pilot on furlough, who is later grounded to handle an important war job in a laboratory. After their baby is born, Theo devotes herself conscientiously to being a model wife and mother. She tries hard at first, but has little faith in her ability to make a good wife. She misses her carefree youth, her string of boyfriends, the glitter and glamour of being loved by a lot of men instead of just one. When she runs into Miles Lancing, an ex-beau, Theo is annoyed because he doesn't act as romantic as he once did. So she dons a sexy gown and heads for the Officers' Club to find him and recapture his attention. But when she returns home that night she finds Tom angry because this was the night they were to celebrate their baby's first birthday. More misunderstandings and reconciliations follow. COMMENT: For once you can get a fair idea of a film's quality from the Synopsis. Believe you me, this talking bore of a story isn't any more lively in the rendering than the reading. True, it's stylishly directed and has lush production values. Lana Turner looks most attractive in cinematographer Ray June's flattering close-ups. And she wears enough costumes, gowns and ensembles to make every female in the audience green with envy. When she starts perambulating through the sets that look as if furnished by Diamond Jim while she strums out an apparently endless series of bogus emotional problems, every feminine heart will flutter - and every male vocal chord will start screaming for the end title.Trimmed of half its running time this Marriage Affair is passably entertaining. I once saw an expertly cut 65-minute version on TV. But as for 117 minutes of Mrs Lana T., leave her to the girls.

Lana Turner, in one of her earliest movies where she takes center stage and top billing, stars in this comedy-drama about marriage being nobody's business but the couple's. James Craig loves her, even though she marries John Hodiak. This does start off talking silly, as John proposes to her and on their honeymoon, but it's to the movie's credit and intelligence that it plays out very well in its treatment of its characters and make them very relate-able to the audience, the other characters being John's friends Sissy and Ted, a married couple, and Joe, played by Hugh Marlowe. Lana's mother (played by Natalie Shafer, who was Mrs. Howell from Gilligan's Island) was in and out of marriages all the time and did not provide Lana with a good role model. But, the viewer is left with the message that you should work in your own garden, before tending to someone else's, that you should go into it, knowing who you are and that all decisions have consequences. "Marriage is a Private Affair" is one of Lana's best unknown movies and needs to be discovered by more people today.

Lana Turner was a true movie star, and she again proves it in this vehicle, "Marriage is a Private Affair," from 1944, which stars Lana with John Hodiak and James Craig. The Taylors, the Gables et al. were off fighting the war.Turner plays a young woman, Theo, extremely popular with the men, who marries a soldier (Hodiak) whom she barely knows, Lieutenant Tom West. Nevertheless, they are happy at first, and have a son. But Tom's work keeps him busy for hours on end, and Theo starts to miss all the attention she once had. She also misses being perceived as a young beauty; now she's a married woman with a child. Because Theo comes from a family where her mother (Natalie Schaefer) was much married and divorced, Theo begins to worry that she's not cut out for marriage, especially when an old beau (Braig) puts the moves on her, and she's tempted."Marriage is a Private Affair" is overly long, and the script isn't much, but it was no doubt relevant in wartime when women married men in haste who then went overseas.This film is really all Lana, absolutely gorgeous, with her beautiful face, figure, and soft speaking voice, a vivacious, flirtatious, and sexy woman who still had elements of a young girl. She really had something special. Later in her life, the energy drained from her, and the scandals, the smoking, drinking, and sun damage all took effect, even if she remained beautiful. But the effervescence was gone.Back in the late '30s and into the '40s, Lana's star presence could - and did - elevate the most tedious of films. Later on, with the big sunglasses, fur coat and head covered with a scarf, she did, too, but for different reasons. This film is pleasant enough - without her, it wouldn't be worth watching. I highly recommend it if you're not familiar with the young Lana.

The makers of this film had a premise: a woman whose childhood makes her a rather flakey person, a bit unsure of herself, picks one of her many suitors just to see if she can. But from there, the movie forgets drama. Why should she come to embrace marriage? It's not the birth of her son. It's not any one thing that happens to her. There's no plot catalyst in this movie, no psychological edge. It's more like a soap opera, where the characters change for no particular reason.