Consolation Marriage

Shopgirl Mary Brown and newspaperman Rollo Porter agree "It's a swell night for a cry." When they meet after their respective sweethearts marry others, all they seek is a convenient shoulder for consolation. Fresh off early career breakthroughs in her Cimarron and his The Front Page, Irene Dunne and Pat O'Brien make an odd and oddly affecting couple in this wisecracking but adult romance that christened Dunne's reign as "queen of the weepies." Drawn together by a sense of humor and shared losses, Mary and Rollo wed in an "open marriage" - an arrangement not binding each other for life but as cozy comfort against being alone. Like other pre-code melodramas, pitfalls arise: the arrival of a baby girl and regular reminders of those past loves - particularly when both former flames (blonde socialite Myrna Loy and disillusioned pianist Lester Vail) return on the Porters' wedding anniversary. What wins out: temptation elsewhere or treasure at hand? Marriage changes people - and Consolation Marriage makes for a swell cry... as well as a cause for cheer!

• drama