Following on from Gunga Din, My Favorite Wife finds Cary Grant in a more typical role, that of a baffled husband, stuck in a tricky - and funny - situation. Opening in a courtroom where Nick (Grant) asks the judge to declare his wife, missing at sea for several years, legally dead, once accomplished he asks the same judge to marry him to Bianca (Gail Patrick). Naturally who should return in the next scene but his first wife Ellen (Irene Dunn)... What follows involves much bluffing, confusion and tricky conversations as Nick tries to figure out what he should do.
best bits...
The film begins with an intriguing premise, ripe for comedy, in presenting Nick with a number of ethical (not to mention legal) problems, and then continues to develop by throwing new complications into the mix. When it transpires that Ellen spent all those years on the island with an athletic hunk (Randolph Scott), Nick's jealousy kicks in and provides for some excellent verbal sparring between Grant and Dunne. I don't believe I've seen Dunne in anything before but I'll be sure to look out for her since as she more than matches wits with Grant in a strongly written lead role that doesn't cast Ellen as a poor victim, more as a canny broad who plays her husband off against her island companion. When she presents a short, bespectacled shoe-salesman as 'Adam' (to her 'Eve') to Nick in order to stem his jealousy she relishes the moment, as does Grant, who has already seen the real 'Adam' flexing by the pool. Alongside the lead's laughs are some touching scenes between Ellen's two children, who don't recognise her and believe her to be dead, and the young actors give good funny too.
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| Dunne and Patrick: I love Dunne's dress in this scene. |
The film isn't as funny as Bringing Up Baby or other screwball classics, although I do think the genuinely interesting premise and subsequent plot twists make up for that. Nick's poor second wife is a bit badly done too, after all she's in love with him and is only really portrayed as needy and a little selfish in order that our sympathies remain with Irene. The conclusion, a curiously uninvolving sequence in a log cabin where Irene refuses to let Nick share her bedroom, is also a bit of an anticlimax, ending with a forced gag involving Grant in a santa suit.
briefly...
More fun than Gunga Din and with an absorbing plot, My Favorite Wife is a fun addition to Cary Grant's filmography, as well as being a scene-stealer for Irene Dunne.
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