My Favorite Wife
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Movie Reviews of My Favorite Wife
Movie Review: "Go on, I'll bet you say that to all your wives"
Summary: 5 Stars
This fun film from producer Leo MacCarey and director Garson Kanin sometimes gets overshadowed by MacCarey's masterpiece, "The Awful Truth," starring the same wonderful duo of Cary Grant and Irene Dunne.
It is a real shame as they are two entirely different films with much to recommend both. It is true that the sophisticated screwball farce of "The Awful Truth" is an often hilarious moviegoing experience. But the amusing comedy approach of "My Favorite Wife" is very enjoyable as well. It is silly, in fact, to knock a great film like this simply because it is filled with chuckles and smiles from the viewer rather than guffaws.
No studio made this type of marital comedy better than RKO. The editing of Robert Wise, photography of Rudolph Mate, and gowns by Howard Green help turn this script by Bella and Samuel Spewack into a fun time at the movies. Everything is all class in this one, right down to the embroidered linen opening credits.
Irene Dunne is fabulous as the supposedly dead wife of Cary Grant. Shipwrecked while on an anthropological expedition seven years earlier, the family dog greets her with joy upon her return. But her two children believe her to be dead and she cannot bring herself to tell them the truth. Dunne is all hamburgers and root beer here, holding back a tear for all the moments she missed with her children.
Grant, however, has moved on, having just remarried. When he gets a take on his first wife while he and new bride, Bianca (Gail Patrick), are on their honeymoon, his stunned reaction sets the tone for all the fun to follow. Nick (Grant) is confused as to what to do, to say the very least. He still loves Ellen (Dunne) but is a bit afraid of the snotty Bianca. His guilt when Ellen teases him that she can't turn her back on him for a second turns to suspicion when he discovers that Portugese freighter rescued not one, but two people from that deserted island!
There are some fun moments as Ellen tries to pass off a short, balding shoe clerk as her island companion to a Nick who's already got a glimpse of the tall and athletic Steven (Randolph Scott) at the Pacific Club. Ellen gets an unexpected dip in the pool there after proclaiming she can live without either of them! Nick's jealousy reveals itself in some hilarious one-liners aimed at Steven.
Donald MacBride has some funny moments as the hotel clerk watching Grant swap rooms like musical chairs. And Granville Bates is great as the judge trying to sort out this whole mess so that true love prevails. A warm and wonderful ending in the mountains with the children caps this one off very nicely.
This truly underrated blend of sentiment and comedy starring Irene Dunne and Cary Grant has stood too long in the shadows and it is time for it to take center stage for the warm and funny comedy it is. A real winner.
Movie Review: Another Dunne and Grant Classic
Summary: 5 Stars
This is often compared to "The Awful Truth", which also starred Grant and Dunne and it shouldn't be. It never attempts to mimic the screwball comedy of that movie. They are both very good comedies and deserve to be judged on their own merits and not compared with the other film.
Irene Dunne is great as Ellen Wagstaff; the supposedly dead wife of Cary Grant. She had been shipwrecked while on an expedition seven years earlier. The family dog greets her upon her return, but her two children think she is a stranger. They believe their mother to be dead and she can't find the words to tell them that she is their mother.
She discovers that her husband, Nick (Cary Grant) has just been married to Bianca (Gail Patrick), and they are on their honeymoon (at the same place he and Ellen went when the got married). They are checking in when he first sees Ellen; after escorting his new bride to their room he returns to the front desk to get a room for Ellen. Nick spends the remainder of the honeymoon going from room to room. Donald McBride is very good as the hotel clerk who tries to accommodate his guests and at the same time show his moral indignation with the "musical room" situation of Grant's character and his wife(s). This sets the tone for future scenes in which one of the spouses is trying to hide something from the other, and Grant's trying to keep Bianca in the dark even after an insurance agent shows up threatening to have him arrested for fraud. (One of the movie's biggest flaws is that Patrick's character is never fully developed thus leaving out potentially funny scenes that may have allowed the movie to stand on its own merit and not compared to the earlier film).
While he still loves Ellen he is unsure what to do or what to say or whom to say it to. In a way he's afraid of his snooty, high-strung new bride. Ellen attempts to tease him about remarrying saying "I can't turn my back on you for a second", which makes Nick feel guilty. His guilt turns to suspicions when he finds she has neglected to mention that she was on the island with a man.
When he confronts her, she tries to pass off a short, balding shoe clerk (Chester Clute), as her island companion, Stephen. She's unaware that he's already seen the tall, athletic Stephen (Randolph Scott), at the Pacific Club. When Ellen says she can live without either of them she finds herself going for an unexpected swim. Nick's then shows his jealousy by delivering some of the movies funniest one-liners aimed at the dumb-as-dirt Stephen.
Another performance worth mentioning is that of Granville Bates as the cantankerous and somewhat bemused judge trying who tries to sort the whole mess out.
We always know that Grant and Dunne will wind up together at then end but it fun watching them get there.
Movie Review: Funny Farce...
Summary: 5 Stars
This one has been a fave of mine since I was a kid and I had been anxiously waiting it to be released on DVD, and in black & white (no "coloring", thanks).
Although it is not the masterpiece that "The Awful Truth" is (starring both Grant & Dunne too), it's anyway an engaging, tongue-in-cheek, romantic comedy, thanks to Cary Grant's and Irene Dunne's wonderful chemistry (They also were good at drama, check the great "Penny Serenade").
Dunne plays the long lost (7 years) wife of Cary Grant, who after years of searching her in the realms of Asiatic continent & islands, has decided to re-marry...to give his two a children a brand-new mother.
I have to state that the quality of the transfer is much better than the Columbia DVD (of extremely "uneven-quality") edition of "The Awful Truth", and you know that Columbia-Sony Editions are more expensive than these Warner editions; and above all, lately the Columbia-Sony Classic releases don't bring bonuses, beside from trailers. Warner releases do come with some delightful bonuses; in this case a Robert Benchkey short & The 1950 Radio Production of the film.
Fine support from Gail Patrick, who specialized in playing "unpleasant" women or plain "bitchy" types, and Randolph Scott, who displays his full athletic prowess & charm in this movie (Grant & Scott were pals in real life).
A Leo McCarey production directed by gifted Garson Kanin.
Remade as "Move Over Darling" (1963) with Doris Day and James Garner, and previously it was intended to be a Marilyn Monroe vehicle: "Something's Gotta Give" (1962) (a unfinished film... really, a barely "begun" film), with her in Dunne's role, Dean Martin in Grant's role and Cyd Charisse in Gail Patrick's...what could have been of that?
Movie Review: Grant and Dunne in top form
Summary: 5 Stars
My Favorite Wife was a lot of fun. Cary Grant and Irene Dunne have amazing chemistry in this outrageously funny screwball comedy.
Seven years have passed since a lawyer's wife was lost at sea. In that time he's found someone else and wants to get remarried. On the day he files papers to declare her legally dead she returns to prove herself alive and get on with her life. She heads out to the hotel where he's staying for his honeymoon and a series of hilarious shenanigans ensue.
Despite this, they try to make efforts to reconcile the relationship. As not to rattle the new wife The old one poses as a southern family friend. When the lawyer learns the man she was shipwrecked with is a real He-man, (I'm going out on a limb here using what I think is 40's slang) He thinks there was something going on between them over those seven years. The movie reaches a hilarious climax in the courtroom and concludes with Grant and Dunne getting back together.
My Favorite Wife is great even though it's clunky in some places (I read the director was sick and somebody had to sub for him That would explain the differences in the style for certain scenes.) What keeps the movie solid is Cary Grant's chemistry with Irene Dunne. The two of them give great performances feeling like an old married couple that knows each other very well.
My Favorite Wife is definitely worth a buy if not rental. It put a smile on my face. Let it put a smile on yours.
Movie Review: A Superb Classic Movie!
Summary: 5 Stars
My favorite Wife is a superb movie and Cary Grant and Irene Dunne are wonderful. Irene Dunne plays a woman named Ellen Arden who was presumed dead after an accident at sea. It's seven years later and her husband Nick played by Cary Grant has her legally declared dead and then he gets married to Bianca who is a snobby and bitchy high society woman who is very whiney and annoying but unbeknownst to him first wife Ellen has been rescued from an Island where she and another man have been marooned for the past seven years and she has just shown up at their house sees their children who were babies when she disappeared and finds out from his mother that he has just gotten remarried to a woman she is not to fond of, and since Ellen isn't really dead she sets out to let her husband know that she is alive and that they belong together and there are a lot more interesting twists in the plot too that make it even funnier. The movie was remade in the 1960's as Move Over Darling, starring James Garner and Doris Day and I think it's a good movie but not as good or as sophisticated as the original