The Family Way Free
- Genres: Comedy, Drama, Romance
- Rating IMDb: 73
- Year: 1966
- Duration: 1:55
Summaries
Compassionate look at the troubles of two young newlyweds, whose marriage has yet to be consummated.
Married life is proving to be difficult for newlyweds Jenny (Hayley Mills) and Arthur (Hywel Bennett). With well meaning, but interfering parents, nosey neighbors, and a town that thrives on gossip, can their marriage last? With all these pressures it's no wonder their personal life is suffering. Will there ever be any good news?
A delightful portrait of two young marrieds trying to make a new family unit in the shadow of the old, against nosy villagers, business associates, doting parents, and their own shyness. While it is a particular marriage, much of what happens is relevant to marriage generally. First, their wedding night is ruined by a crude practical joke that makes the bed collapse, the travel agent they hired to plan their honeymoon absconds with their money, and they find themselves forced to live for the first few weeks of their marriage in the house of one set of in-laws, with little or no privacy. This movie deals with these predicaments in a sympathetic, human way, with insight, delicacy, good nature, and good humor.
Outgoing Jenny Piper (Hayley Mills) and quiet and sensitive Arthur Fitton (Hywel Bennett), very much in love with each other, are a young British couple about to get married. Their early married life is mapped out: they will spend their wedding night in the house of Arthur's parents, Ezra (Sir John Mills) and Lucy Fitton (Marjorie Rhodes), before they embark on their short honeymoon to Majorca. Having no money, and needing to live off of Arthur's wages as a movie theater projectionist and Jenny's wages as a record store clerk, they will deal with where to live after they return from their honeymoon. But not all goes according to plan. Arthur is unable to consummate the marriage on their wedding night, their travel agent absconds with their money, leaving them honeymoonless, and they have to live with Arthur's parents in the short term, due to the honeymoon issue, and there being no available housing. The longer they stay in the small Fitton house with its thin walls, little to no privacy, and an overbearing Ezra (who is the exact opposite of Arthur, who in turn tries but can't understand his father), combined with Jenny and Arthur's different work schedules giving them little time together, the harder it is for Arthur to consummate the marriage. But Arthur and Jenny don't know what is causing the issue with Arthur, and they don't want to talk to anyone about it as they fear the embarrassing news spreading around their small town. But they can only keep their problems quiet for so long before rumors start to spread. But Arthur and Jenny's problem is not unique, as the Pipers and Fittons talk about their own marriages, the Fitton's especially with regard to Ezra's childhood friend, Billy. But Arthur and Jenny will have to figure out how to save their marriage even before it really begins.
