Mating Season The (1951)

Mating Season The (1951)

This delightfully funny (and ironic) comedy earned Thelma Ritter the second of her six unrewarded Supporting Actress Oscar nominations even though her role is really a leading one. It was directed by Mitchell Leisen (Dynamite (1929)); producer Charles Brackett (Sunset Blvd. (1950)) wrote the screenplay with Richard Breen (A Foreign Affair (1948)) and Walter Reisch (Ninotchka (1939)) from a play by Caesar Dunn. It also stars Gene Tierney somewhat against type John Lund and Miriam Hopkins among others all of whom are terrific.

Tierney plays Maggie Carleton who’s spent her life being waiting on hand and foot in embassies around the world since her father was an ambassador. While Maggie doesn’t really act like the spoiled daughter of a diplomat her mother Fran (Hopkins) is another story; she is the epitome of a stuck-up woman who’s used to having 20 servants catering to her every need. On the other hand Val McNulty (Lund) is a hardworking junior associate trying to get ahead in a company run by Mr. Kalinger (Larry Keating) and his partying son George Jr. (James Lorimer). Working late one night with a secretary named Betsy (Jan Sterling) that has designs on him ambitious Val runs an errand for an inebriated George Jr. to retrieve the woman he wanted to have as his fiancée Maggie naturally from a precarious position in her car as it hangs over a cliff. Hence Val meets Maggie and it’s love at first sight for both of them.

Meanwhile Val’s mother Ellen (Ritter) has just had her New Jersey hamburger joint foreclosed upon by the bank and unbeknownst to her son is headed west to live with her son. Ellen’s a widow; she and her husband had sacrificed to put Val through college at NYU. Even though Ellen has just hitchhiked half way across the country she conceals this fact from her son whom she meets at a bus station. Furthermore she’s too proud to accept Val’s money or (ala Stella Dallas (1937)) embarrass her son by attending his wedding to Maggie. Instead she finds odd jobs (the last with Ellen Corby’s character) to earn enough money to dress up nicely enough (with a new dress an $18 hat and gloves) to go and meet her new daughter-in-law. But Maggie is in the midst of a struggle doing domestic tasks for the first time in her life and mistakes Ellen for the domestic help her husband had promised to assist with their first dinner party. Though she tries to explain Ellen eventually decides to help unawares Maggie by cooking the meal; she plans to clear things up when her son arrives but of course the events conspire to prevent it until the party’s almost over. Ellen helps Mr. Kalinger get cleaned up after his son has clumsily spilled food on him; he then gives her a ride home. Val follows and learns what had happened earlier in the day. When he gets back to the apartment intending to tell Maggie about his mother the two end up doing what newlyweds are apt to do instead.

By the next day Ellen has decided to help her still unawares daughter-in-law by becoming their live-in cook. She convinces her son that his wife needs her help and that if Maggie knew Ellen was her mother-in-law the situation wouldn’t work. Everything goes well until Maggie’s mother Fran returns from Europe to live with them as well. Fran won’t give Val the time of day; she thinks he must be an imbecile for marrying Maggie knowing that she doesn’t have money. She treats Val’s mother like the lowly servant she is but Ellen is too outspoken to take much gruff from hoity toity Fran. Meanwhile George Jr. continues to unabashedly pursue "the one that got away" Maggie while subtly attempting to steal Val’s business deal with an important client; fortunately Ellen is in the right place at the right time with Mr. Kalinger to head off the latter. Cora Witherspoon plays the client’s snobbish wife Mrs. Williamson. The McNultys have their first spat after an incident connected to said deal; it develops into a full-fledged row and a pending break-up when Maggie discovers who Ellen really is but not in the way one might think. However all works out in the end for the couple and there’s both a perfect comeuppance for Fran and George Jr. as well as a happy ending for Ellen with Mr. Kalinger.