I Married a Woman

Advertising executive Mickey Briggs is given 48 hours by his boss, Sutton, to come up with a campaign for client Luxemberg Beer and save the company from ruin. Mickey neglects his wife, Janice, who once had been a "Miss Luxemberg" in a successful ad campaign featuring various attractive models.

Janice has just discovered she is expecting a baby, but is unable to inform Mickey, who is too distracted by work. Even when they find time to go to a movie, John Wayne is on screen, being considerate to his screen wife (Angie Dickinson), which makes Janice weepy but Mickey finds unrealistic.

It does give Mickey an idea, however, for a campaign in which "Miss Luxemberg" is now "Mrs. Luxemberg", enjoying family bliss. Sutton loves it, then rejects all the applicants until he decides that Janice herself must return to be "Mrs. Luxemberg". Film footage of their real life is shot without Janice's knowledge.

All goes terribly wrong, with Janice instead suing Mickey for divorce and Sutton's company for $100,000. After flirting with Mickey's wife, best pal Bob Sanders breaks the news that she's pregnant, which makes Mickey try harder to win her back. On a cruise and in love again, the couple is startled to spot John Wayne on board, arguing with his wife.

The film was based on an original story by New York radio writer and producer, Goodman Ace. In September 1950 the screen rights were bought by Norman Krasna and Jerry Wald, who had a production deal at RKO.[4] They wanted to cast Cary Grant and Betsy Drake.[5] In October Richard Fleischer was assigned the job of directing.[6] In November Celeste Holm was announced as star.[7] Ace was brought to Hollywood to work on a script, which Krasna wanted to aim at the female audience.[8] In December 1950 RKO announced the film would be made the following year.[9]

However production kept being put back. In February Wald and Krasna said the film would be made in August, with Stanley Rubin as producer, but the film had no star or director.[10] In September 1951 Wald and Krasna said they had a script, and wanted to cast Cary Grant but wanted to get the casting right.[11] Wald and Krasna eventually left RKO.

The project was reactivated a number of years later. In April 1956, Diana Dors signed to play the female lead opposite TV star George Gobell.[12] Her fee was $75,000 plus expenses.[13] It was Gobel's second leading role after The Birds and the Bees.

Dors arrived in the US in late June.[14] The job of directing was given to Hal Kanter, who worked with Gobel in television.

Filming took place in July 1956. Kanter called the film "light and frothy. It gave Goodman Ace... the chance to unload a lot of witty barbs he's been saving up over the years."[15]

Gobell called Dors "a fine performer".[16] During filming RKO signed Dors to make a second film, The Lady and the Prowler, which became The Unholy Wife.[17]

• John Wayne filmography

• I Married a Woman at IMDb
• Review of film at Variety