The appearance of Marilyn Monroe in a swimsuit not once but twice in the brisk marital comedy We’re Not Married! (1952) is enough to recommend it, but there are other rewards as well.  Justice of the Peace Victor Moore discovers that he married six couples before he was officially appointed to do so.  The error is found when one couple asks for a divorce, and so the others are notified, some two-and-a-half years after their weddings.  How they react to the news is mostly funny, sometimes dramatic and occasionally poignant.

The couples are Marilyn Monroe and David Wayne, Ginger Rogers and Fred Allen, Eve Arden and Paul Douglas, Zsa Zsa Gabor and Louis Calhern, and Mitzi Gaynor and Eddie Bracken.  The tone is satirical, lampooning easy targets such as relationships, gender roles, money, radio, greed, beauty contests, advertising, nepotism and, of course, marriage in its many forms.

Its separate episodes would certainly be intercut today, but its segmented structure was rather popular at the time and is solidly effective.  The most memorable couples are Monroe and Wayne (for obvious reasons) and Rogers and Allen, well matched as sweetly venomous radio stars.  It’s a smartly written comedy performed by a top-notch cast, easy on the eyes and perhaps more sagacious than one would presume.  My rating:  ✪ ✪ ✪.  (9:2).