lbbrooks
Though not as spontaneously hilarious as Dunne and Grant's earlier pairing in "The Awful Truth" (1937), "My Favorite Wife" again displays the masterful comedic timing and wonderful on screen romantic chemistry that Irene and Cary shared. Just as she did in "The Awful Truth", Miss Dunne has to use every trick at her disposal in order to goad Cary Grant into doing the right thing. She not only has to compete against her replacement spouse counterpart and ice queen Bianca, she has to win her husband and the father of her children back...all the way back to the marriage bed. The end scene with Cary Grant dressed as Santa Claus and wishing Irene Dunne a Merry Christmas is hysterical. Because of the strict movie code of the time, he can't come right out and say what special gift he is delivering to her but the audience knows just the same! Movies were so much more entertaining back then because they left so much to the imagination, thereby enriching moviegoers' imaginations in the process.
weezeralfalfa
A typical, but not especially good, Cary Grant screwball romantic comedy. Costars Grant and Irene Dunne had costarred in the previous rather similar comedy "The Awful Truth", which generally gets better reviews, but definitely not by me. The next year, they costarred in their final film together: "Penny Serenade", which I have seen, and is quite different in tone from the present film, being a sentimental tear jerker.We have an unbelievable coincidence to begin the film. Grant(as Nick) and Gale Patrick(as Bianca)are before a judge, to be married, then spend their honeymoon in the mountains. Meanwhile, Grant's first wife , missing for 7 years, and presumed drowned, after her ship sank, shows up at her home, unannounced . She greets her children, playing in the yard, but doesn't tell them who she is. However, her mother-in-law, inside, does recognize her, but doesn't tell the children, who don't find out until near the end of the film. She is told about Nick's just completed marriage ceremony (no guests, apparently), and takes a plane to the mountain hotel.Incidentally, 7 years is a common length of time until a missing person is declared legally dead. Thus, it's not clear whether Ellen has been declared legally dead. If not, Nick would have to go through a formal divorce before he could remarry. In either case, he should not still be legally married to his first wife. He just has to make up his mind whether he wants the new marriage annulled, and remarry his first wife. Apparently, this is what he wants, but is afraid to tell Bianca. This forms the basis of most of the comedy.There are many gaping plausibility holes in the screenplay. But that's not unusual for this type of comedy, if you are willing to forget about this. For example, why wasn't Ellen's rescue communicated to Nick by telegraph or telephone long before she arrived, unannounced at her home. Why did she arrive, after 7 years, exactly on his wedding day. The behavior of Nick and Ellen is mostly strange throughout most of the film. Why did they put off telling significant others about the situation as long as possible, which gives rise to most of the comedy.Poor Randolph Scott, as Burkett) is also caught up in this marital mess. He was on the deserted island with Ellen for the full 7 years, as he was also on that ship that sank. Nick finds out about him from a life insurance agent. Nick is very upset, and goes looking for him. He finds him at a swimming pool. As Nick feared, he is tall,, ruggedly handsome and is showing off his diving prowess to the ladies present. Nick doesn't confront him, but probably wonders if he didn't save Ellen from drowning, hence helping to cement a relationship during those 7 years? Meanwhile Ellen has found a short balding man to pose as Burkett, hoping to reduce Nick's fear that they had a sexual relationship. Later, the real Burkett appears and skirts around the question of whether he and Ellen were lovers. Nick obviously can't believe they weren't. But the film censorship board presumably demanded that they didn't. Surely, their clothes would have soon fallen apart, and they would have had to improvise, or go naked. The fact that they called each other Adam and Eve would prejudice us toward assuming the latter possibility. Several times, Burkett says he would like to marry Ellen and return to that island, where they could live in peace. But Ellen disagrees. After all, she has 2 children at home. In the last part, Bianca storms out of the courtroom and disappears. Ellen is cool toward both Nick and Burkett. Nick drives away from their home, but soon returns and tries to plead with Ellen to make up. He has to sleep in the attic, but instead comes down in a Santa costume. Ellen gives in.Unlike some reviewers, I didn't feel there was a gap in humor. I thought it was spread around pretty uniformly. I would guess this film would be most appreciated by women and older children.
jacobs-greenwood
This classic screwball comedy was directed by Garson Kanin and co- written by Leo McCarey, who shared an Academy Award nomination for this Original Story with (husband and wife) Bella and Sam Spewack (their only nomination); the film's B&W Art Direction and Roy Webb's Score were also Oscar nominated.Cary Grant stars as a man who has just convinced a judge (Granville Bates) that his first wife is dead, lost at sea in a shipwreck, so that he can marry another woman (Gail Patrick). However, once they are, he finds out that his original wife (Irene Dunne) is alive when she returns after spending 7 years on an island with another man (Randolph Scott), a fact which obviously upsets him.This above average comedy has Grant's character then having to decide which is his "favorite" wife. Ann Shoemaker plays Grant's mother; Donald MacBride plays a hotel clerk. Interesting side note is that actors Grant and Scott were (or had been) roommates, sharing an eligible bachelor flat at the beach.
mark.waltz
Or, as Irene Dunne says, "the Mulligan stew", which gets a laugh in court as she reveals she is the wife who came back to life after being declared legally dead when her husband (Cary Grant) went off and married another woman (Gail Patrick). In the same year as the sexually reversed "Too Many Husbands" (which is about just what the title indicates), "My Favorite Wife" is the more remembered of the two, probably because it has a fast moving and funny screenplay where everything comes together perfectly.Those who have seen this film's Doris Day/James Garner remake ("Move Over Darling") first will have little trouble recognizing the same structure which only changes at the end. The story opens with Grant in court going through the legal procedure of having the long-missing Dunne declared dead just so he can immediately marry the somewhat temperamental Patrick. Dunne shows up immediately afterwards, encountering her two children and mother-in-law, then heading off to the hotel where she and Grant initially spent their first honeymoon to create a bundle of confusion. It continues when Grant and Patrick arrive home and Dunne is there, posing as the daughter of an old friend of Grant's mother (Anne Shoemaker). Grant discovers that his missing wife wasn't quite so alone on her island stay, with the handsome Randolph Scott present as a man whom she nicknamed "Adam" to her "Eve".This is both combination of family and screwball romantic comedy as the desire to reunite the family torn apart by no fault of their own, and it is brilliantly written and acted. You can tell when Patrick breaks down crying that those are indeed crocodile tears as she is way too tough (both in her character and in our memory of her previous screen performances) to be willing to break down so easily. Character performances by Donald MacBride as a befuddled hotel clerk and Granville Bates as a befuddled judge add to the delight of this story. Dunne and Grant are an easy-going romantic team who in three films had the sophistication and wit of Powell and Loy, Tracy and Hepburn, and Lombard and Gable. How I wish they had done more!
