Let's Make It Legal (1951)

On the eve his divorce becomes final, a man (Macdonald Carey) attempts to woo his wife (Claudette Colbert) back. Things get even more difficult when her old flame (Zachary Scott) comes back into town and they rekindle the embers. Based on MY MOTHER IN LAW MIRIAM by Mortimer Braus and directed by Richard Sale. Colbert is an expert farceur and has a slew of classic screwball comedies to prove it. She attempts to spin her usual magic but this is strictly TV sitcom stuff and she can't elevate the material. It doesn't help that she has zero chemistry with the dull Macdonald Carey who doesn't have a comic bone in his body. For material like this to work at all, she'd need someone her equal in both star status and comic ability and Carey doesn't fit the bill. The cast includes a young Marilyn Monroe who makes the most of her brief screening time and Robert Wagner as Colbert's son in law and he hasn't developed his smooth comedic timing yet. With Barbara Bates (ALL ABOUT EVE), Kathleen Freeman and Frank Cady.