I've been tracking down films written by Isobel Lennart, so although I wasn't completely surprised by how charming this film is, most viewers will be since it's so obscure. This brief B-comedy opens with many splendid characters and zany complications, reminiscent of a Preston Sturges film without quite hitting that height. (There's even a "hep" kid sister that reminds me of Diana Lynn in Sturges' masterpiece "Miracle of Morgan's Creek," although I think that came out a couple of years later. In fact, "Martha" even has a drunken overnight marriage!) The comic actors--Spring Byington, Margaret Hamilton, Marjorie Main, etc.--give full-throttle readings in even brief roles, down to glances and gestures. What I perceive as typically Lennart touches: the opening "union" meetings of the maids and the matrons, who each vow to "stick together" ("One for one and all for all!" says the Swedish maid); and the appearance of the lonely, oddly touching and philosophical beach worker (shades of the character Pop in "Skirts Ahoy"). And Martha's motives in writing her book, also typically, are not selfish; she's not writing a scandalous expose as they fear but an expression of how much she likes them. Interesting that it's about a misunderstood woman writer! It's an early script for her and she co-wrote it, which may explain why there are easy stock characters and selfish negative ones (like the fiancee) who are shut out of the community instead of being recuperated.
Review of The Affairs of Martha
