In the late silent-film era, Richard Dix played virile young men in a successful series of comedies. In the early sound era, he gracefully matured into dramatic roles. 'Let's Get Married' is somewhat atypical for Dix, as he plays a character who is less sympathetic than usual, and who must earn the audience's sympathy.
Dix plays Bill Dexter, the spoilt playboy son of a wealthy publisher. Bill's father publishes hymnals: can there really be so much money to be made in that particular line? Apparently there can be, because Bill has got plenty of leisure time for drunken carousing with his football buddies from a college identified as 'New Haven'. At regular intervals, Bill and his buddies (one of them a young Nat Pendleton) like to smash up the El Prado nightclub. Bill's father uses his influence to keep the scapegrace out of trouble, but the judge (a New Haven alumnus) warns Bill's father: if Bill gets arrested one more time, he's going to chokey.
Bill's father confiscates his petrol-driven car, giving him a much slower and more staid electric. There's an amusing sequence in which Dix drives his electric car through city traffic at its top speed ... which is so slow that Dix is able to jump out of the moving vehicle, run a circle round it, and get back inside. This leads to a 'meet cute' sequence in which Dix's electric gets rear-ended by the car driven by pretty Mary (Lois Wilson).
Now get this. To win the fair lady, Bill suddenly decides to make something of himself, so he gets a job selling his father's hymnals. His big customer is JW Smith, who turns out to be a woman, played by Edna May Oliver, one of my favourite character actresses. She is delightfully cast against type here: she looks prim and proper, but she really wants a good time. She dragoons Bill into taking her to El Prado, where she hopes to see one of those notorious brawls.
'Let's Get Married' isn't very plausible, but it's quite funny and the cast give ingratiating performances. I'll rate this comedy 7 out of 10.
