1959: The Mating Game

The Mating Game (George Marshall, 1959) 7/10

Today, British author H.E. Bates is a forgotten figure in popular literature. Through the Forties and Fifties, he was responsible for composing several popular works of fiction, many of which were later made into films such as 1954's Purple Plain starring Gregory Peck. Bates also wrote the screenplay to David Lean's 1955 film Summertime starring Katharine Hepburn. Perhaps, Bates' most endearing works however are his Darling Buds Of May novels.

Set in rural Southeast England, The Darling Buds Of May was adapted onto television in the early 90's and became a popular platform for the show's future Hollywood star Catherine Zeta-Jones. Yet, this television show was not the first time that these ribald novels by Bates had been adapted. In 1959, MGM took the core elements of Bates' novels, transplanted them to the rural United States and re-tooled the format for George Marshall's The Mating Game

Starring Debbie Reynolds and Tony Randall, The Mating Game is a delightfully breezy romantic comedy: a slice of pure hokum which compensates for the contrivances of its plot with its playful physical comedy and innuendo-laden dialogue. Set in rural Maryland, the film features Reynolds as Mariette Larkin, a sprightly tomboy whose father Pop Larkin (Paul Douglas) is engaged in trouble with his neigbour, Wendall Burnshaw (Philip Ober) a local land baron. When the collectivist Larkin borrows his über-capitalist neighbour's prize pig to stud his hog, Burnshaw utilizes his political clout in Washington to have the I.R.S. search through Larkin's tax records.

The problem is Larkin does not have any: a matter which disturbs young, uptight tax collector Lorenzo "Charlie" Charlton (Tony Randall). Through his research Lorenzo, an aspiring lawyer, discovers Larkin has never filed a single tax return. Assigned to uncover Larkin's financial status, the urbanite Lorenzo enters an unfamiliar world of Christian-Socialist principles were church, community and family-not money- are paramount.

The Mating Game is a curious hybrid of mild sex comedy and slapstick. With its lavish production values, convoluted plot and likeable romantic undercurrents, The Mating Game could have easily been adapted as a musical had it been produced half a decade earlier. It is interesting to compare Marshall's film with Charles Walter's 1950 musical Summer Stock in which a group of students overrun Judy Garland's farm. Both films feature strong female leads, but while Garland was an efficient businesswoman, Reynolds' character here is a sexualized teenage girl. Garland's Jane is masculinized by her adoption of traditional male roles as breadwinner and provider; Reynolds' Mariette is a tomboy who wrestles with older boys in a sexualized manner. While Mariette initially believes these physical interactions to be innocuous and playful, it is significant that later on in the film, these same interactions taken on a violent spirit akin to rape and physical abuse.

Their relationships with men are not purely romantic in their intentions. Both utilize men to secure the future of their property. In Summer Stock, Garland woos an incompetent and passive-aggressive son of a community head in Orville; in The Mating Game, Reynolds tries to seduce a de-sexualized government agent in Randall's Lorenzo in order to protect the century old family farm. But while Garland's Jane abandons Orville for true love, Mariette is smitten by Lorenzo. Yet, her intentions are never fully clear. Her parents desire her to be with Lorenzo as he can provide for her a future, which they, nor the rugged farmhands she fools around with cannot.

He is equipped with an academic mindset, which they cannot fully understand, but readily appreciate. It is interesting to note that while Lorenzo eventually becomes engrossed with Mariette, her reasons for searching for him in Baltimore are altruistic, rather than self-serving. Furthermore, we never do see Lorenzo and Mariette marry and given her family's penchant for stalling Lorenzo's work, perhaps her attempts at enticing him are to ensure a favourable decision through sentimentality and sexual bribery.

Th undercurrent of sex is scattered throughout The Mating Game: there is the "play-fighting" between Mariette and the other boys; the phallic log, Randall sits upon while Mariette pursues him; the suggestive dialogue between Pop and Ma Larkin and so forth. For the Larkins sexual behaviour is a normal and healthy activity, while for Lorenzo it is a shameful act. Two interesting scenes demonstrate the perplexing attitudes to sex shown throughout The Mating Game.

The first involves an intoxicated Lorenzo stripped and left to fall asleep on Mariette's bed. When he awakes the next morning, he finds that Mariette has snuck in a few hours before and is lying next time. Believing he has engaged in intercourse with her, he is shocked to find a local priest and police officer in the downstairs parlour waiting to see him. With his conservative ideas, Lorenzo believes the pair are there to marry he and Mariette. Yet, the true nature of their visit is to thank Pop Larkin for his donation of an electric organ. The confused federal agent however suggests that Mariette is sexually loose and he would never conform to that behaviour.

The second scenes which expands on the latter, involves Mariette lying atop Lorenzo in a hay stack. Unbeknowst to the two lovers, the local farmhands are standing above them. Before engaging in fisticuffs, one of the farmhands informs Lorenzo that is his turn to be atop Mariette. Earlier in the film, Mariette corrects her mother on the prounciation of the word "orgy," while later on we see Lorenzo smelling a handful of hay taken from the same stack.

Given her previous sexually aggressive behaviour and the insinuation that the barn is a secret sexual rendezvous point, it is possible to argue that Mariette engages in clandestine escapades in the barn with the queue of young men attending at her feet. Coupled with her pursuance of Lorenzo, sex is arguably part of "The Mating Game" which Mariette freely engages in. Unlike with the local boys her infatuation with Lorenzo seems more at her parent's whispered behest, rather than her own.

Her free spirited ways are antithetical to the structured and disciplined ethos to life prescribed by Lorenzo. While Lorenzo espouses rhetoric regarding public ownership and government interaction, his words are false and contrived. When Lorenzo claims that his government car is public property, he is stunned to have the Larkins ask to borrow it. Similarly, when Mariette wishes to see Lorenzo's boss at the I.R.S., he informs her that she will have to file a claim. The face-to-face interaction, Mariette is used to does not apply in Lorenzo's world of paperwork, social networking and detached relationships. The materialism of Lorenzo's urban mindset is foreign to the openness and cooperative networks the Larkins operate within.

Lorenzo's attempts to find taxable income for the Larkins is a task engaged in vain. Still utilizing a bartering culture dating back generations, the Larkins engage in a quasi-socialist trading community. When the family wants an item, they simply trade their livestock or material goods which no longer hold value to them. Their farm is profitless as they simple swap produce for usable materials rather than cash. When another agent informs the family that the government will pay them to not grow certain crops, they are outraged and believe such actions are criminal. While for Burnshaw property, social contacts in Washington and hard currency represent power and wealth, the Larkins most valuable asset is a small pond, their social network extends around the church and their financial holdings amount to under two hundred dollars.

The Mating Game works through its efficient adoption of the Larkin's dated social mores. Imbuing the picture with a communal spirit and a light comedic sensibility, George Marshall turns a rather stilted concept into a delightful romp. There is no time for swooning melodramatics here, as the vastly underrated Douglas, along with Reynolds and Randall provide a warm humourous diversion to the traffic and calculated tactics of modernity as William Roberts' script jaunts along. Unlike in Summer Stock released almost a decade prior, there is an earthiness here which adds an air of authenticity to the proceedings. Although the film's finale is engineered with a hollow sense of truth, Marshall maximizes the potential of a thin plot with comic sexual overtones, jovial bucolic surroundings and a rich colourful brand of folksy Cinemascope.

* The Mating Game is currently unavailable on DVD

Copyright 2007 8½ Cinematheque