The Mating Season
Directed by Mitchell Leisen
Written by Charles Brackett, Walter Reisch, and Richard L. Breen from the play Maggie by Caesar Dunn
1951/USA
Paramount Pictures
First viewing/Amazon Instant Val McNulty: Everybody marries a stranger. This pleasant, if predictable, comedy features an read more
In the 1950s it was unlikely that newly married couples, couples in the midst of the mating season knew each other intimately before they actually took the plunge. Or so the mores of the time dictated. As such being newly married meant you had to get to know your chosen life partner from square read more
The Mating Season was my choice during TCM’s Summer Under the Stars tribute to Thelma Ritter. Ritter was one of the best remembered character actresses of the golden era, and The Mating Season wouldn’t work as well as it does without her (the same could be said, in an ensemble sense, wit read more
4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on Aug 29, 2014
Thelma Ritter was always a scene-stealer, upstaging the stars, but perhaps it is no more evident than in this comedy starring Gene Tierney, John Lund and Miriam Hopkins. She runs a hamburger stand in New Jersey, talks plain, and works hard. Her son Val McNulty is a college graduate and a kind, gentl read more
4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on Aug 29, 2014
Thelma Ritter was always a scene-stealer, upstaging the stars, but perhaps it is no more evident than in this comedy starring Gene Tierney, John Lund, and Miriam Hopkins. She runs a hamburger stand in New Jersey, talks plain, and works hard. Her son Val McNulty is a college graduate and a kind, gent read more
Within days of meeting under unusual circumstances, Val McNulty (John Lund) and Maggie Carleton (Gene Tierney) decide to get married. Val is a working-class junior executive who believes Maggie's family is affluent. Yet, while Maggie's mother has hobnobbed with royalty as an ambassador's wife, the f read more
The Mating Season is an awkward social comedy of errors. I say awkward because to make the plot work, Gene Tierney has to act selfishly every time she’s supposed to be garnering sympathy. Thinking about it now, the film never even resolves her flirtations with the guy out to ruin her husband read more
