Holy Matrimony

Woolley is a British artist who has been living and painting in seclusion on a Pacific island for 20 years, accompanied only by his valet, Eric Blore. When King Edward VII decides to award Woolley a knighthood, the painter and servant reluctantly pack up and head back to Britain. By a stroke of fortune, Blore dies along the way and Woolley seizes the opportunity to assume the dead valets identity. Arriving in an England draped in mourning in his honor, he tries to go to his funeral but is chased away. Before long Fields shows up with a letter from Blore proposing marriage, and Woolley is forced to marry her to maintain his ruse. To his surprise he finds wedded bliss quite pleasing, but then Blores first wife, OConnor, shows up at his door with three children and demanding to know where hes been for the last 20 years. In court facing a charge of bigamy, Woolley finally manages to clear the identity problem and ends up with Fields. An excellent, sophisticated comedy tailored by writer-producer Johnson to fit the screen persona that Woolley had established in THE MAN WHO CAME TO DINNER two years before. Superbly played by Woolley and Fields who are at their peaks (and who would prove such good foils for each other that they would be reteamed two years later in MOLLY AND ME). The supporting cast is loaded with talent as well, with perpetual butler Blore, Laird Cregar, and everyones favorite hatchet-faced crone OConnor making every scene a pleasure. The film earned an Oscar nomination for its screenplay. (official distributor synopsis)