Two Wives at One Wedding

The Danzigers were always full of surprises, but they surpassed themselves with this oddity which sounds (and starts) like one of their comedies but instead turns out to be an earnest drama about blackmail with one of their trademark discordant jazz scores.

A full third of the film's running time is devoted to a lengthy flashback set in occupied France, when Gordon Jackson is supposed to have married Lisa Daniely while suffering from amnesia. Ms Daniely with an 'Allo 'Allo accent and beret and raincoat to match, turns up at Jackson's wedding to the luscious Christina Gregg with a marriage license dated 22 August 1944 and demands the then colossal sum of £10,000 not to tell the papers.

I didn't doubt for a moment that this was going to prove to be anything other than a scam; but the twists and turns of Brian Clemens and Eldon Howard's preposterous story (with elements of the sort of thing Clemens would soon be churning out for 'The Avengers'), assisted by good performances from a competent cast, keep you sufficiently curious as to where this is all leading to continue to be entertained until eventually arriving at the satisfactorily action-packed conclusion.

This is a rather strange film.As noted by the other reviewer the title makes it sound like a comedy.However within a few minutes it becomes a wartime action film.Then it morphs into a mystery drama which is long on talk and short on action.Then the poorly staged climax which is long on action and short on talk.The climactic fight is supposed to be taking place on top of a central London hotel but is clearly being staged on top of a sound stage in Horsham Wood.You can see the fields in the distance.Some familiar faces appear.Andre Maranne who always played French parts,and Humphrey Lestoq from early children's television.It's the sort of combination of events that you would expect from the Danzigers.

The title leads the viewer to believe they are about to watch a classic comedy. However, this film is no comedy, rather a drama with some thriller aspects. Set shortly after the war, Gordon Jackson, plays an British soldier who served in France during the war. He has returned to civilian life and is about to marry his sweetheart (Christina Gregg). Shortly after the ceremony he is contacted by a woman (Lisa Daniely) he knew in France who he romanced during the war.

The story unfolds that Jackson was seriously injured during the fighting in France. During this time, Daniely claims Jackson proposed and they were married. Unfortunately for Jackson, he lost his memory for a short time and he can't disprove her claim.

Daniely offers to leave the two newlyweds forever as long as Jackson can pay her a considerable sum of money. Now Jackson (and the viewer) realizes that Daniely is a fraud and they were never married. But how can he prove it and is someone else involved in the blackmail scheme.

The film is certainly no cracker, but the current rating (3.2) is a little harsh. Yes, it's a little staid and very low budget. Still it was a pleasant enough 65 minutes if one is not expecting too much.

Watching TWO WIVES AT ONE WEDDING strictly for the presence of British model/actress Christina Gregg is a big let down...

And can be summed up in one sentence that her would-be husband, a World War II vet played by Gordon Jackson, says before facing the climatic face-off against two con artists: "Stay in the car!"

Sadly that (mostly proverbial) car includes the present time that's only half the picture, mostly taking place in flashbacks in war-torn France where he's taken into a safe house, wounded, delirious. And winds up blowing-it even worse than a few years later when he infamously utters "Good Luck" in THE GREAT ESCAPE...

The biggest let-down however is that this living-room-mystery's femme fatale, Lisa Daniely, crashing on Jackson and Gregg's wedding by claiming that she married him during the war (and that flashback), never embraces or is allowed to embrace her villainy, making TWO WIVES a talky exercise in futility, and one that should have ended in a cat fight.

Gordon Jackson has just married Christina Gregg. At the reception, Lisa Daniely enters and asks to speak to Jackson. She says she's his wife; they had been wed during the war when he had escaped from Germans behind their lines. He had been shot and he remembers she nursed him back to health, but his memory is patchy and he does not recall the wedding.

It's the start of a standard type of comedy, but this movie from the Danziger Brothers is not a comedy. It's a serious drama, as Mlle. Daniely demands ten thousand pounds for a quick, quiet divorce. Jackson is a doctor, just setting out on what everyone anticipates is a brilliant career. He can't afford the noisy divorce and bigamy charges.

It's a good idea, and a good, if barebones script. Unfortunately, the Danziger Brothers produced cheap movies, and there is almost nothing done to ornament it: a succession of simple sets, and an uncredited music score that rarely pays any attention to what is happening on the screen. Jackson is okay in a one-note role, Miss Gregg was making a foray into acting, away from the fashion catwalk, and that's about the limit; even the French actors sound like they're faking their accents. If it were not for the inherent cleverness of the script, this would be uninteresting.