Friday, August 30, 2013

EVERY GIRL SHOULD BE MARRIED (1948)

Poor Cary Grant.  He's a simple bachelor who just wants to be left alone to his simple life, but oh no!  Once Betsy Drake gets a look at him at the local drug store she begins stalking him.  Literally stalking him.  She initially flirts with him at the store, but he's not interested so she goes to his work, then looks up everything she possibly can about him all the way back to his old yearbooks!  Next she starts showing up at his favorite restaurants.  During one of these restaurant stalking outings she talks to him and leads him to believe that she has a boyfriend in an attempt to make him jealous (he's not), but then the lie backfires when the guy she says she's dating shows up and tries to rape her!!!  Not at the restaurant, but at his house.  In exchange for not calling the cops about the attempted sexual assault (she got away by bashing him in the skull with a shovel and escaping over a fence) he gives her a job in the basement of his store.  What a guy.  Things go on like this for the rest of the movie with Betsy badgering the living hell out of Grant nonstop and even continuing the fake boyfriend charade with the pervert dude and yet another guy! 

I guess the writers found all of this to be very funny (and maybe I'm looking into the story too much) but I found the whole thing depressing.  Poor Grant can't have a moments peace and Betsy, who is clearly mentally deranged, repeatedly places herself in dangerous situations in delusional attempts to get Grant's attention.  If the roles had been reversed and it was a male stalking a female all over the joint he would have been thrown in jail.

Watch if you want, but if want my advise: skip it.  If you need me I'll be in my room watching BRINGING UP BABY.