There's no cuter housewife than June Allyson in an apron as the sweetest 18-year-old homemaker who takes on the adventures of newlywed life in stride and with pride in her first home!
And there's no way unwed people will relate to the roller-coaster ride that is the 'Marriage Learning Curve' as is delightfully depicted in The Sailor Takes a Wife.
In this adorably cute, albeit dated, tale of WWII era newlyweds, two inexperienced youngsters throw themselves into the experiment of marriage with high ideals that quickly clash with real-life realities which end up creating G-rated slap-stick misunderstandings in a charming cinematic blast from the pro-housewife past!
While the story may seem unrealistic compared to modern times (as if movies packed with promiscuous office romances are now the standard by which to base realism!), the film is full of imaginative scenarios that humorously mirror true-to-life situations that devoted married couples are likely to understand and appreciate:
- unexpected career changes
- an affordable first apartment filled with its own quirks
- seeing your spouse in a different light for the first time
- realizing you don't know everything you thought you knew about your spouse
- being patient with your spouse
- defending and protecting your spouse from prying parties
- forgiving your spouse for unintended accidents
- sticking with your spouse when life doesn't go the way either of you expected
- laughing together through the ups and downs of the Marriage Learning Curve
- and putting the marriage first in the marriage!
I can understand why this movie would be viewed as a farce since Hollywood now programs women (and men!) to believe that home is no place for a woman; and that a woman is meant to be more than 'just' a housewife; and that a woman doesn't have to tolerate a man if he wants her to be a homemaker, or if he loses his job, or if he gets seduced by unscrupulous women.
A woman nowadays may not have to put up with anything she doesn't want to put up with, and that's a woman for you, but that's not a wife.
A wife has responsibilities that an unwed woman doesn't have, and a wife knows her wifely duties come before her womanly wants for the sake of her marriage and her husband; likewise, a husband has the same responsibilities, which sometimes turns marriage into a temporary tug-of-war, but only until both sides realize that winning happens when everyone lets go of the rope and the two sides come together in laughter and love!
The Sailor Takes a Wife is a fun film and an escape to a different time when women were happy to stay at home and swearing wasn't needed to be entertained.
The film could very much benefit from captions/subtitles, which TCM has now sadly removed from their movies when they should be removing the liberal hosts who aren't adding to the quality of the movies but only taking money away from skilled captioners who are the ones who truly make old movies better for everyone.
