Distinctly Montana Magazine

86 D I S T I N C T LY M O N TA N A M A G A Z I N E • S P R I N G 2 0 2 5 young Norman Maclean. He does manage to inject Ezekiel with a strain of ingenuous sincer- ity and bewilderment that is rath- er charming. One of the running gags is his propensity for fainting when he becomes overwhelmed; it does get a bit stale, but the first two instances provoke chuckles. A viewer can already see hints of the comic timing and the grounding presence he would bring to his subsequent career as an everyman movie star. And yes, he has gone on record to state that Patricia Arquette was his first kiss. It is worth mentioning that the film is not accurate in its de- piction of Hutterite customs. The plot hinges upon levirate mar- riage, which real-life Hutterites do not practice, and the average age when Hutterites marry is in their early twenties. Even the first marriage wouldn't be a thing, since one must be a baptized member of the Hutterite community in order to be wed in a colo- ny (it's also highly unlikely that a woman in attire like Havana's would've been allowed on the colony without substantially mod- est re-dressing). Hopping over the Canadian border might not have been needed by the script either, as there are fifty Hutterite colonies across the Treasure State, and have been since 1912, when the Spring Creek Colony was established near Lewistown. Those interested in learning more about the community can check out the book The Hutter- ites in North America, by Max Stanton and Rod A. Jenzen. Leonard Nimoy was of course a one-of-a-kind figure in Amer- ican television and film history. In addition to the five decades where he played Spock, he also directed music videos and fea- tures. He directed Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984) and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986), as well as the still-fun comedy Three Men and a Baby (1986), which starred Tom Sel- leck, Steve Guttenberg, and Ted Danson as a trio of swinging bachelors whose lives are thrown for a loop when an infant is left on their doorstep. Nimoy did not direct the also-fun sequel, Three Men and a Little Lady (1990), and is on record as regret- ting that he did not. I imagine that the vibe of warm silly humor the two former movies contain was what he hoped Holy Mat- rimony could achieve. It may not have, but Nimoy completists can include it, perhaps next to "The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins," as a curiosity in a career dedicated to the unique and somewhat unusual.

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