I Do and I Don't Quotes

“Marriage, after all, was the known, not the unknown: the dull dinner party, not the madcap masquerade. It was a set of issues and events that audiences knew all too well offscreen. Unlike the wide-open frontier of the western, offering freedom and adventure, or the lyrical musical, with its fantasy of release through singing and dancing, or the woman's film, with its placing of a marginalized social figure (the woman) at the center of the universe, or the gangster movie, with its violent excitement and obvious sexual freedom, the marriage film had to reflect what moviegoers already had experienced: marriage, in all its boredom and daily responsibilities.”
― Jeanine Basinger, I Do and I Don't: A History of Marriage in the Movies

“Why would everyone - in both the movie business and the audience - want to avoid the label "marriage"? Marriage was presumably everybody's business. People were either born into one, born outside of one, living in one, living outside of one, trying to woo someone into one, divorced from one, trying to get divorced from one, reading about one, dreaming about one, or just observing one from afar. For most people, it would be the central event - the biggest decision - of their lives. Marriage was the poor man's trip to Paris and the shopgirl's final goal. At the very least, it was a common touchstone. Unlike a fantasy film or a sci-fi adventure, a marriage story didn't have to be explained or defined. Unlike a western or a gangster plot, it didn't have to find a connection to bring a jolt of emotional recognition to an audience. Marriage was out there, free to be used and presented to people who knew what the deal was.”
― Jeanine Basinger, I Do and I Don't: A History of Marriage in the Movies

“Marriage,” said Eddie Cantor, long wed to his Ida and the parent of five daughters, “is not a word. It’s a sentence.”
― Jeanine Basinger, I Do and I Don't: A History of Marriage in the Movies

“The business didn't trust it, audiences didn't want it, but marriage could never be ignored. It was everywhere and nowhere, the genre that dared not speak its name, the ghost that hung over the happy ending of every romantic comedy. As a subject, it existed to be achieved (jolly comedy, great love story), destroyed (death, murder, tragedy), or denied (divorce). If it was achieved, the movie was over. If it was destroyed, it was no longer there, gotten rid of and abandoned once and for all. If it was denied, it was only temporarily shelved (for some fun) and could be reassuringly restored.”
― Jeanine Basinger, I Do and I Don't: A History of Marriage in the Movies

“Another superb movie about a mature marriage grounded in a fundamental lack of communication is Dodsworth, based on the Sinclair Lewis novel.”
― Jeanine Basinger, I Do and I Don't: A History of Marriage in the Movies

“Joanne Woodward’s Mrs. Bridge is one of the best performances ever given on film of a middle-aged woman.”
― Jeanine Basinger, I Do and I Don't: A History of Marriage in the Movies

“Excellent films do exist on the subject, however, and one is a pure marriage movie in which Newman and Woodward make it work. Mr. and Mrs. Bridge exists to tell moviegoers that the marriage of their parents—especially if they were those tragic dogsbodies, Midwesterners—were fogbound. The film depicts a steady relationship that has no real communication between its couple”
― Jeanine Basinger, I Do and I Don't: A History of Marriage in the Movies

“They could play married, both happy and unhappy, like no other acting couple have ever played married. They’re the Lunts of the American marriage movie.”
― Jeanine Basinger, I Do and I Don't: A History of Marriage in the Movies

“When it came to portraying couples who never directly connected, the Newmans were the Olympic gold champions”
― Jeanine Basinger, I Do and I Don't: A History of Marriage in the Movies

“... this film taps perfectly into the viewers’ sense of the world. It was a big, big hit, and one of Hollywood’s best-remembered marriage movies, although by grounding itself in trendy political issues, it avoids ordinary day-to-day marital problems. Its bottom line is, however, marry your own kind.”
― Jeanine Basinger, I Do and I Don't: A History of Marriage in the Movies

“The ghastly mother-in-law is well represented by a little comedy film of 1952: No Room for the Groom, directed by Douglas Sirk, the fine German director more famous for his melodramas that humanely criticize American morals and values.”
― Jeanine Basinger, I Do and I Don't: A History of Marriage in the Movies

“The true marriage movie involving in-laws and children is a story about how marriage is directly affected by external characters who impact the central relationship in various ways.”
― Jeanine Basinger, I Do and I Don't: A History of Marriage in the Movies

“Movies endorsed unwanted ideas by putting them into story form and resolving them up there on the screen. The goal was, as always, identification, but also relief.”
― Jeanine Basinger, I Do and I Don't: A History of Marriage in the Movies

“In-laws were often used as plot devices to drive a happy couple apart, to destroy marital love and trust.”
― Jeanine Basinger, I Do and I Don't: A History of Marriage in the Movies