Evengyny Thanks for the memories!

Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

Brainsbell The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

Sarita Rafferty There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

JohnHowardReid A Leo McCarey production. Copyright 15 October 1937 by Columbia Pictures Corp. of California. New York release: 4 November 1937 at the Radio City Music Hall. U.S. release: 21 October 1937. Australian release: 27 January 1938. 10 reels. 92 minutes. Re-made in 1953 as LET'S DO IT AGAIN.NOTES: Leo McCarey won the year's prestigious Hollywood award for Best Directing (defeating William Dieterle's The Life of Emile Zola, Sidney Franklin's The Good Earth, Gregory La Cava's Stage Door, and William Wellman's A Star Is Born). Also nominated for Best Picture (winners in brackets): (The Life of Emile Zola); Best Actress, Irene Dunne (Luise Rainer, The Good Earth); Supporting Actor, Ralph Bellamy (Joseph Schildkraut, The Life of Emile Zola); Screenplay (. . . Emile Zola); Film Editing (Lost Horizon). Number ten in The Film Daily survey for the Ten Best Pictures of 1937.The original stage play starred Ina Claire and Bruce McRae. It opened at the Henry Miller Theatre on 18 September 1922 and ran 144 performances. It was first filmed in 1925 by director Paul Powell. Agnes Ayres and Warner Baxter starred. In 1929 Marshall Neilan directed a sound version starring Ina Claire and Henry Daniel. Arthur Richman himself wrote the screenplay, in collaboration with Horace Jackson.COMMENT: An hilarious romantic comedy, with some of the most amusing situations ever put on film. True, it is very obviously adapted from a stage play and it takes a while to get going (doubtless for the benefit of latecomers). But when Cary and Irene finally decide to get a divorce and she phones her lawyer who expatiates on the joys of marital bliss in between an unseemly quarrel with his own wife, the fun begins. Once started, the script piles one hilarious episode on another and, unlike many other films of this type, it does not run out of steam in the final reconciliation scene, thanks to two ingenious running gags with a door and a clock. McCarey carried off the 1937 award for Best Direction — and deserved it. According to Ralph Bellamy, much of the film was improvised by McCarey on the set. Yet shooting was completed in six weeks! The casting is well-nigh perfect. Cary's role is tailor-made and he makes the most of it, bubbling over with sly humor and delightful reaction shots. Miss Dunne brings the same finesse to her role (which allows her a couple of songs) and although we are practically blinded by soft focus whenever the camera looks her way, she is quite attractively groomed and costumed — which makes a pleasant change from some of her other films. Ralph Bellamy has his usual role of the put-upon "other man", but it still had freshness when this film was made and he plays it with comic expertise. Among the supporting players, all of whom are excellent, special mention must be made of Joyce Compton. Although she figures in only one episode and despite the fact that her singing voice is obviously dubbed, she makes quite an impression.

Hitchcoc How can you not like Cary Grant and Irene Dunn. Their chemistry in this is remindful of those Hepburn movies where there is so much going on, it's hard to keep up. As is usually the case, Grant plays fast and loose with trust, and is caught. This leads to divorce and the two of them deciding to spread their wings. This is the classic convergence of the Twain, as the two can't seem to do anything without the other showing up in some context. We all know how a movie like this, made in 1937 is going to end, but the fun is in just getting there. The term screwball comedy was invented for this film. Again, if it weren't for its star power it would not be terribly entertainment. One other thing, the two stars are so young and so attractive.

pyrocitor The traditional definition of 'comedy' entailed tensions being resolved through a wedding in the finale. Fittingly, The Awful Truth, opens with tensions reaching a breaking point, and its central romantic couple filing for divorce – as clear an indication as any of director Leo McCarey's allegiance to convention. As infamous for its chaotic, improv-heavy shoot as for its firm cementing in any list of 'top screwball comedies,' there is certainly nothing awful about The Awful Truth, except perhaps the ensuing pain in one's side from laughing too hard. Although the film practically crackles with the energy and vivacity McCarey stirred up throughout the shoot, the film's premise does lend it a slightly more reflective and melancholy timbre than the average whizz-bang silliness of the screwball subgenre. Although divorce was not as much of a rarity in the 1930s as many would believe, films frankly engaging with the concept were still comparatively few and far between (between this film, and the subsequent The Philadelphia Story and His Girl Friday, it seemed to happen to Cary Grant more than anyone else in history). As such, even the ensuing hijinx of Grant and Irene Dunn attempting to sabotage each other's attempts at finding romance elsewhere can't help but play with more of an undercurrent of bitterness and secondhand embarrassment to a contemporary audience than was likely intended at the time. Rather than detracting from the enjoyment, however, this lends the film a curious poignancy even as the pace, pratfalling, and cascade of deliciously clever zingers (including arguably coining the now vernacular term 'rebounding'), generally employed to only barely buffer the film's bawdy sexual undertones, continue to keep the audience wildly entertained throughout. The film remains a delightfully loopy farce, with an almost Shakespearian penchant for mistaken identities and uncouth situations, which ultimately builds towards a climax that dismantles social posturing and, fairly unsurprisingly and conservatively, advocates reuniting (chuckle-worthy cuckoo clock sight gag and all). It's in the strength of the lead performers that this climax, as well as the tone of the film as a whole, feels natural and heartfelt rather than contrived. Both Grant and Dunn, just starting to hit their strides as comedic juggernauts, balance the most acerbic tweaking of their twinkling personas with a seldom seen vulnerability and sweetness, and their chemistry is truly one for the ages. Grant, only starting to cultivate the image of 'THE Cary Grant,' is at his tumbling, righteously indignant grumbling, quipping best, whereas Dunn proves as masterfully skilled at winning roars of laughter form the slightest twitch of her nose to her iconic lampooning of a drunken floozy. Providing considerable support, Ralph Bellamy essays his best lovable buffoon (complete with an unforgettably hilarious cringe-worthy duet of "Home on the Range" with Dunn), while Cecil Cunningham pilfers most of the best one-liners as Dunn's quick-witted Aunt Patsy. The rest is cinematic history: McCarey took home the Academy Award for Best Director (Dunn and Bellamy were also nominated), and, over seventy years later, the film remains a winningly vibrant screwball classic. Silly, but with an appropriate dash of sobering, and wildly exuberant without becoming exhausting, watching or rewatching this delightful film is an opportunity that shouldn't be passed up. And that's the Truth. -9/10

GManfred May be the best 'screwball comedy' of them all. Grant and Dunne are perfect, and they have perfect support from Ralph Bellamy and Cecil Cunningham.It's all been said in other reviews, so here are just a few observations;*Important to note that this was possibly the first of the so-called 'screwball comedies' which were so popular in the 30's and early 40's. I think this the best of a genre which can easily veer off into tedium ("You Can't Take It With You").*As noted by another reviewer, Irene Dunne's style was copied by Katharine Hepburn, instead of vice versa. For my money, Irene Dunne was a better all-around actress.*As mentioned, here is another instance of Ralph Bellamy playing the also-ran boyfriend. He seemed to make a career out of this type of role and here gets an AA nom for his work.*There are so many funny scenes in this picture and I think it's a tribute to the comedic genius of Leo McCarey, who started out as a director of silent comedy shorts, including some Laurel and Hardys.