Tonight's Movie: Twin Beds (1942)

Last week was the birth date of one of my favorite actresses, Joan Bennett, who was born in New Jersey on February 27, 1910.

I don't ever really need a reason to watch Bennett, but her birthday was as good an excuse as any to watch her in a new-to-me film, TWIN BEDS (1942). TWIN BEDS is a giddy marital comedy starring another favorite, George Brent, not to mention a pair of wonderful supporting actresses, Una Merkel and Glenda Farrell.

Bennett plays Julie, who as the movie begins is marrying Mike (Brent). They walk down the aisle together, arguing the whole way about whether she has time to take a honeymoon. Poor Mike should have been forewarned; as time goes on it seems Julie never has time to be alone with him, between her USO work and her society entertaining.

Julie has a pair of admirers, Larky (Ernest Truex) and Nicolai (Mischa Auer); Larky marries Lydia (Merkel), while Nicolai is married to Sonya (Farrell), and all three couples end up living in the same apartment building. The story builds to a prolonged sequence in which Larky and Nicolai both end up in Julie's bedroom for innocent reasons -- which look highly suspicious to everyone else.

The three-author screenplay had its origins in a stage play, but truth to tell there's so little substance to the script that it's almost hard to stay tuned in and follow along. The goal clearly is a lighter-than-air slapstick comedy, but there's nothing much to it at all, although the cast gamely does what they can with it.

The underlying concept, in which the wife is so wrapped up in herself and her supposed importance to others that she can't spare time for her husband, is quite reminiscent of Tracy and Hepburn's WOMAN OF THE YEAR (1942), which was released a few weeks previously. That said, in TWIN BEDS the story is a jumping-off point for a bedroom farce which ends with characters going in and out of windows, hiding in closets and chests, and generally being crazy. If only it were funnier!

One of the unique little things about the film is that Julie and Mike start out sharing a bed, then have a conversation about getting twin beds in order to get more sleep! (Because one of them tosses and turns, of course...) When Julie actually buys twin beds, Mike is a bit crestfallen. It seemed a little unusual for characters to directly address their sleeping arrangements, especially as Hollywood films of this era had an unrealistic obsession with putting married couples into twin beds for Production Code reasons.

Merkel looks especially lovely in this, with longer hair than usual, and Bennett was at her most beautiful in the '40s, but not much more can be said for TWIN BEDS. It wears out its welcome considerably before its 85 minutes are up. A shame given all the talent on hand!

The cast also includes Margaret Hamilton, Charles Coleman, Charles Arnt, Ralph Dunn, Clarence Muse, and Cecil Cunningham.

Although she wasn't credited at IMDb when I watched the film -- I have since submitted her name -- Marjorie Reynolds is unmistakably a party guest early in the film, greeting Mischa Auer's character when he arrives and later joining him at the piano. A 2002 Classic Images profile of Reynolds by Colin Briggs confirms it's her. TWIN BEDS was released the same year as Marjorie's big role as the leading lady of HOLIDAY INN (1942) opposite Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire.

TWIN BEDS was a United Artists release directed by Tim Whelan and photographed in black and white by Hal Mohr.

TWIN BEDS is not available on commercial DVD. It had a release on VHS.