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Post by wmcclain on Jan 27, 2021 15:00:57 GMT
My Favorite Wife (1940), directed by Garson Kanin. Seven years after his wife is lost at sea, her husband has her declared dead so he can remarry. Who should reappear right after the wedding? How to explain things to the new missus? Wife #1 really is our hero's favorite. After seeing The Awful Truth (1937) recently I just wanted more Irene Dunne and Cary Grant. This is a good one, if not quite as lively as the previous film. The precious bit is that the jokes are entirely on Grant this time. Turns out his wife spent those seven years stranded on a tropical island with he-man Randolph Scott. Now Grant suffers from intense sexual jealously and a feeling of not quite measuring up. Whatever did or did not happen, the wife doesn't mind him suffering at all. The sexual innuendo is pretty blunt this time. Wife #2 is Gail Patrick, last seen as the evil sister in My Man Godfrey (1936). She first came to Hollywood to audition for the part of the panther-woman in Island of Lost Souls (1932). In one scene Dunne does a dead-on Katharine Hepburn impression; this was the same year as The Philadelphia Story (1940). Like iron to a magnet, screwball comedy scripts always wind up at the remote luxury cabin. Photographed by Rudolph Maté.
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Post by wmcclain on Jan 27, 2021 15:01:08 GMT
Too Many Husbands (1940), produced and directed by Wesley Ruggles. Through no fault of her own a woman finds herself married to two men. She thought the first one was dead. After the initial shock wears off she is not at all displeased, instead finding the arrangement rather exciting. The plot is similar to My Favorite Wife (1940) (a better film) from the same year. That movie has Irene Dunne while this one stars Jean Arthur, two actresses who occupied the same character space and who I often confuse when trying to remember who was in what in films of this period: Both films are examples of the comedy of remarriage, where the couple have to get back together after splitting. It was a Code-compliant way of letting people flirt with infidelity and multiple partners. Other examples: From a play by W. Somerset Maugham. Photographed by Joseph Walker. Available on DVD.
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Post by Isapop on Jan 27, 2021 15:07:08 GMT
A comic bonus in My Favorite Wife is the gem of a performance by Granville Bates as the judge who appears at the beginning and the end of the film. He is dryly hilarious, and he owns both scenes.
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Post by petrolino on Jan 29, 2021 21:09:32 GMT
Not heard of 'Too Many Husbands' before. Thanks for the reviews.
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