Common Law Wife Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		1.5
Video		3.5
Audio		3.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		1.5

Common Law Wife Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman June 26, 2024

Note: This film is available on Blu-ray as part of Film Masters' double feature release of Common Law Wife and Jennie, Wife/Child.

If you've ever wondered if there's a through line connecting Mae Marsh to Judy Canova to Ferlin Husky to Burt Reynolds (and who amongst us hasn't?), look no further than the rather convoluted but fascinating history of so-called "Hicksploitation" given by C. Courtney Joyner in a supplement included with the latest cult double feature from Film Masters. The actual films included in this set may admittedly come across as extremely low rent bus and truck versions of, say, Baby Doll , though in this case any perceived comedy is of the unintentional variety, and any provocative material probably tends to be a bit more on the sleazy side than the sort of literary imprimatur that a writer like Tennessee Williams could bring to the subject of so called child brides.

Any perceived connection to the well remembered Elia Kazan film linked to above is unavoidable with Common Law Wife, since its, um, "youngish" femme fatale is indeed named Baby Doll. While she's ostensibly played by an actress named Lacey Kelly, as some of the supplements (and other online data which I frankly encourage people to research) get into, Common Law Wife is, to paraphrase a commercial that was actually popular when this film came out, "Two. . .two. . .two films in one," and that means Baby Doll might be better referred to as Baby Dolls. That's because this enterprise started as something else entirely, including being shot in color in 16mm, but was never released in its original form, ultimately being sold to a producer who then hired a new director to get things done, albeit in black and white and 35mm this time, and with an evidently completely different plot in mind. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately), Kelly was evidently no longer available, and so a replacement was engaged, who, kind of like the "fake" Bela Lugosi in Plan 9 from Outer Space, is adorned with all sorts of (largely incompetent) disguises to hide her identity.

The other two characters in an undeniably tawdry ménage à trois are (as the back cover of this release terms him) "wealthy old coot" Shugfoot Rainey (George Edgley), who is seen throwing darts at his more, um, mature mistress Linda (Annabelle Weenick) as the film opens. Suffice it to say Shugfoot decides Baby Doll (in either of her incarnations vis a vis different actresses) is a better choice, but Linda is up on some arcane law which may stand in his way.

Common Law Wife Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Common Law Wife is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Film Masters with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. While Film Masters tends not to provide a bunch of technical information on their releases, in this case the presentation begins with the following prefatory text card:

The following film was originally shot in 16mm color under the title Swamp Rose by Larry Buchanan. The film was later sold to a distributor who hired director Eric Sayers to shoot new principal photography in 35mm to create Common Law Wife. Consequently, you will observe changes in film grade throughout. We've done our best to restore and preserve this film as it would have originally been shown in 1963.

There are undeniably wide variances in clarity, detail levels and grain resolution between the 16mm and 35mm sections, as can be pretty easily seen by parsing through the screenshots I've uploaded to accompany this review, where I've attempted to give examples in each format. Contrast and detail levels are both more secure in the 35mm material, and the tendency for a lot of the 16mm material to favor midrange and even wide shots can mean fine detail is negligible. There's minor age related wear and tear on display, but perhaps surprisingly not as much as you might expect.

Common Law Wife Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Common Law Wife features a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono track that shows some persistent background noise, and a rather bright high end that can afflict music in particular but also even dialogue. There are some perhaps surprisingly slight variations between quality on the 16mm and 35mm footage, though I'd say not as glaring as in the video department. Dialogue is rendered clearly. Optional English subtitles for the feature are available, and rather commendably Film Masters also provides subtitles for both of the commentary tracks.

Common Law Wife Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Per their standard operating procedure, Film Masters has packaged these films as a double feature, with supplementary content that may not be exclusive to any individual film, so I'm including the complete supplemental package on both discs:

Disc One: Common Law Wife

• New Commentary with Millie De Chirico and Ben Cheaves is accessible under the Setup Menu.


• Archival Commentary with Larry Buchanan and Nathaniel Thompson is accessible under the Setup Menu.


• Restored 1963 Trailer for Common Law Wife (HD; 2:44)

Disc Two: Jennie, Wife/Child

• Commentary for Jennie, Wife/Child with Millie De Chirico is accessible under the Setup Menu.


• That's Hicksploitation! (HD; 50:30) is an interesting look at this peculiar subgenre with host C. Courtney Joyner. And, yes, I promise you'll get from Mae Marsh to Burt Reynolds faster than you might think.


• New 2024 Jennie, Wife/Child Trailer (HD; 2:06)

Additionally Film Masters provides a nicely appointed insert booklet with an essay by Lisa Petrucci.

Common Law Wife Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

As an example of a film cobbled together from two completely different filmmakers, Common Law Wife may at least offer some interest to those with a penchant for cinematic Frankenstein jobs. Technical merits are unavoidably variant in the video department in particular, but the assembled supplements over the two discs in this set are interesting, especially the archival commentary on this disc and the Joyner piece on the other disc.