Mary, and her 2 Husbands

Blue Skies

I recall seeing Blue Skies as a kid. The musical number, Heat Wave I remember to this day. The other big dance number, Puttin’ on the Ritz, is famous because it is one of Fred Astaire’s best. The plot? Nah. Nothing to see here, kids. The theme? As Spock would say, “Fascinating.”

What we are dealing with in Blue Skies is a classic situation. A love triangle. Two men and one woman. Hot stuff for a movie produced in 1946, yes? No. Watch a couple of the Road movies, with Bob Hope, Bing Crosby and Dorthy Lamour. Those were the comedies that poked fun at this situation of two guys after the same girl. Crosby usually came out the winner. In truth, Dorthy won. She had the best of both worlds.

The Road movies were adult comedies that the kids could enjoy. That is so because, back then, adults made movies for the family. This is when movie makers understood their audience. And that the big money is when you can get dad buying a ticket for his wife and 2.5 kids.

Today? Today the market is broken down into G, PG, Pg-13, R and NC-17. The G and PG films still make the most money. And the Hollywood of today keeps heading into R territory and wonders why it goes broke. But I digress.

Blue Skies plays the threesome beautifully, and badly. The three archetypes are played by Astaire as Jed, Crosby as Johnny and Joan Caulfield as Mary. Mary is pretty, sweet, and is in showbiz by default. Hers is the eternal wife and mother character. And the dumb female that thinks she can change a guy. She, like so many modern women, want the perfect guy to marry. She thinks Johnny is that perfection.

Johnny is the entrepreneur. Forever on a journey, he buys and sells nightclubs. Once he has made a new venue successful, he grows bored with it. The Johnnies of this world take a special sort of female, and Mary ain’t it.

Mary is pre-archetype modern woman. Stuck in between the Romantic period and post 1960 worlds, she is naive in that she thinks love conquers all problems.

Jed is stable. He knows what he wants. He’s creative, but he is highly skilled. Individuals with skills want to use those skills. They have no need to reinvent the wheel. Jed would propose to Mary, but she is too enamored of Johnny. Johnny, for a while, gives her what she wants, but then that old demon to create a new business gnaws at him. Mary and Johnny divorce.

Mary is the archetype that Jordan Peterson speaks about. The too nice female who is usually agreeable. Mary does say that she wants marriage, but she doesn’t draw a line. The Marys of this world do not understand that they must set priorities to get to their goal. Want a raise? Ask for it, and be prepared to walk if you don’t get it. Want a stable guy? Go out with men who work for a living and want the family. Exclude all others.

Because showbiz types can be known for their flighty habits, we have to ask the question. Why is Mary hanging out with these people?

Can Johnny be changed? No. Leopards don’t lose their spots. So what is wrong with Jed? Nothing. Except there is no chemistry there. As in the Road movies, the two men offer two different aspects of life with a man. Usually it is passion versus stability. Ares versus Hephaestus. And then there is the modern perplexity: sentiment versus deep love.

Americans are big on sentiment. They want the feel good moment. You know the drill. If it feels good, do it. Deep love, on the other hand, is about doing the right thing for the other individual. That would mean letting Johnny go, or, becoming enthusiastic about his buying and selling. However, that wouldn’t be Mary, any more than Johnny settling down would be Johnny.

We have our own archetypes that need to be taken into consideration when we fall in love. This goes beyond the chemistry rush. Mary, as the naive, modern American woman, thinks this chemistry is love, and that circumstances will change Johnny. That he will keep the passion, and become Mr. Stability.

Jed is the stable one. But Jed turns to drink when his own needs are denied him, by him. The Mr. Nice Guy needs a nice girl. That ain’t Mary. Naive women are rarely nice. (When I write the book, I’ll get into that.)

Jed gets good and soused before a big dance number. Mary, the agreeable, cannot help him because Mary doesn’t know how to draw a line. She cannot stop Jed from drinking. It is during this dance number, Heat Wave, that Jed’s skills fail him. He’s okay with the moves until he falls off the bridge that is erected onstage. End of dancing career.

Both dances, Puttin’ on the Ritz and Heat Wave represent Jed’s professional life. Puttin’ on the Ritz is a brilliant dance number that requires skilled precision. In this number he is at the zenith of his career. Heat Wave is the emotional dance. It represents that things have become too complex. Jed is growing older; dancers grow old before the rest of us do, after all they are athletes.

The movie ends with Johnny and Mary still in love, with the suggestion they will get back together. Nonetheless, neither one has changed. Their troubles will start again if they don’t work on their basic issues. Jed will be around if there is another train wreck.

The movie, Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands, is excellent at detailing this plight that many women have, thinking that Mr. Right will be both passionate and stable. Make that modern women. Before the enlightenment, women were happy to marry a man who would be good to them, and give them children. When a woman married, it meant she had her own home, and perhaps, if she or her husband had a business, they worked it together. Marriages, back in the day, were not about sentiment. Or chemistry. Marriages were about the art of taking care of others, and growing in affection. Love was there, as well as loyalty, perseverance and companionship.