The Marrying Kind. 1952. USA. Directed by George Cukor. Screenplay by Ruth Gordon, Garson Kanin. With Judy Holliday, Aldo Ray, Madge Kennedy, Sheila Bond. 93 min.
Signed to Columbia after Harry Cohn witnessed her Broadway performance in Born Yesterday, Judy Holliday became an unexpected star for the studio. The Marrying Kind was Holliday's third collaboration with the director George Cukor, reuniting her with Adam's Rib screenwriters Garson Kanin and Ruth Gordon. But the film is a radical departure from the comedies that made her famous -- it's a raw, emotionally unvarnished portrait of a marriage that reflects the influence of Italian neo-realism, far from Cukor's glamorous work at MGM.
As Florence Keefer, the unfulfilled wife of a postal worker (Aldo Ray), Holliday displays a painful sensitivity that goes beyond her previous work, particularly as the couple, in the film's final act, confront a devastating personal loss.