My Favorite Wife (1940)

Director:

Garson Kanin

Writers:

Bella Spewack (original story) &
Sam Spewack (original story) ...
(more)

Release Date:

17 May 1940 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Romance

Tagline:

The funniest, fastest honeymoon ever screened!

Plot:

Ellen Arden arrives 7 years after being given up for dead in a shipwreck, to find her husband Nick just remarried to Bianca...

Plot Keywords:

Jealousy | Shipwreck | Island | Trial | Stranded

Awards:

Nominated for 3 Oscars.

Cast

Irene Dunne	...	Ellen Arden
Cary Grant	...	Nick Arden
Randolph Scott	...	Steve Burkett
Gail Patrick	...	Bianca Bates
Ann Shoemaker	...	Ellen's mother
Scotty Beckett	...	Little Tim Arden
Mary Lou Harrington	...	Little Chinch Arden
Donald MacBride	...	Hotel Clerk
Hugh O'Connell	...	Johnson - insurance investigator
Granville Bates	...	Judge Bryson
Pedro de Cordoba	...	Dr. Kohlmar - psychiatrist
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Joseph E. Bernard	...	Reporter (scenes deleted)
Frank Ellis	...	(scenes deleted)
Edward Emerson	...	Reporter (scenes deleted)
Bruce MacFarlane	...	Reporter (scenes deleted)
Frank Marlowe	...	Photographer (scenes deleted)
Cyril Ring	...	Contestant (scenes deleted)
Brandon Tynan	...	Dr. Manning (scenes deleted)
Jean Acker	...	Postponed case witness (uncredited)
Murray Alper	...	Yosemite bartender (uncredited)
Leon Belasco	...	Waiter - Pacific Club poolside (uncredited)
Joe Cabrillas	...	Phillip (uncredited)
Bill Cartledge	...	Page boy paging Burkett (uncredited)
Chester Clute	...	Shoe salesman (uncredited)
Corky	...	Corky, the Dog (uncredited)
Franco Corsaro	...	Waiter bringing wine (uncredited)
Florence Dudley	...	Postponed case witness (uncredited)
Harold Gerard	...	Assistant court clerk (uncredited)
Roque Guinart	...	Waiter (uncredited)
Earle Hodgins	...	Court clerk beside Judge Bryson (uncredited)
Edna Holland	...	Johnny Weissmuller inquirer (uncredited)
Thelma Joel	...	Miss Rosenthal - Nick's legal secretary (uncredited)
Cy Kendall	...	Police detective arresting Nick (uncredited)
Ellen Lowe	...	Weissmuller inquirer's companion (uncredited)
Margaret Martin	...	(uncredited)
Horace McMahon	...	Truck driver giving lift to Ellen (uncredited)
Sue Moore	...	Maid drying Ellen's clothes (uncredited)
Bert Moorhouse	...	Postponed case lawyer (uncredited)
Clive Morgan	...	Postponed case lawyer (uncredited)
George Noisom	...	Page boy bringing Steve's robe (uncredited)
Bob Reeves	...	(uncredited)
Ronald R. Rondell	...	Bellboy #1 (uncredited)
Matty Roubert	...	Page boy paging Mr. Arden (uncredited)
Eli Schmudkler	...	Janitor (uncredited)
Pat West	...	Caretaker at Arden's mountain place (uncredited)

Directed by
Garson Kanin

Writing credits
Bella Spewack		(original story) &
Sam Spewack		(original story) (as Samuel Spewack) and
Leo McCarey		(original story)
Bella Spewack		(written by) &
Sam Spewack		(written by) (as Samuel Spewack)
Garson Kanin		uncredited
Alfred Lord Tennyson		poem "Enoch Arden" (uncredited)
John McClain		uncredited

Produced by
Leo McCarey	....	producer (uncredited)

Original Music by
Roy Webb

Cinematography by
Rudolph Maté

Film Editing by
Robert Wise

Art Direction by
Van Nest Polglase

Set Decoration by
Darrell Silvera

Costume Design by
Howard Greer		(gowns)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
James H. Anderson	....	assistant director
Ruby Rosenberg	....	assistant director

Art Department
Mark-Lee Kirk	....	associate art director

Sound Department
John E. Tribby	....	sound recordist

Other crew
Bert Granet	....	screenplay constructor (uncredited)

Production Companies

• RKO Radio Pictures (presents)

Distributors

• RKO Radio Pictures (1940) (USA) (theatrical)
• C&C Television Corporation (1955) (USA) (TV) (syndication)
• RKO Radio Pictures (1947) (France) (theatrical) (as RKO Radio Films)
• Warner Home Video (2004) (USA) (DVD)
• Warner Home Video (2006) (USA) (DVD)
• Éditions Montparnasse (2003) (USA) (DVD)

Runtime:

88 min | Germany:75 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Victor System)

Certification:

Canada:G (video rating) | Finland:S | Sweden:15 | UK:U | USA:Approved (PCA #5974)

Filming Locations:

Ahwanee Hotel, Yosemite Valley, Yosemite National Park, California, USA

Company:

RKO Radio Pictures

Trivia:

Cary Grant wears a leopard print smoking jacket throughout much of the last third of the film. He was just coming off the huge flop Bringing Up Baby (1938) in which the titular character is a leopard.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When Nick first tries to sleep in the bed in the attic of the cabin, he pulls a toy cannon from under the bed and throws it across the room. When he does this, the doll on the night stand falls over. You can see the trip wire swinging behind Nick. In fact, the pin at the end of the wire lands on Nick's head.

Quotes:

Ellen Wagstaff Arden aka Eve: Oh, you Casanova, you.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Parent Trap (1998)

Soundtrack:

The Skaters Waltz (Les patineurs)

Tremendous fun, if not the sharpest screwball specimen.

There are some lovely, touching and dryly amusing scenes in this film. Kanin and the scriptwriters manage to form a substantive, if occasionally gossamer light, whole out of the playing of fine leads and canny comic incidents. The basic story may be the oldest of chestnuts, but it is here embellished with some degree of incisiveness. Grant's scene by the pool with Dunne and Scott reaches a fine pitch of hilarity, and who can forget the impressionistic scene of Scott's diving coming into Grant's mind and being presented in miniature on-screen?

That master player of light, witty material, Grant, is of course sublime, and I was surprised by Irene Dunne - who I had never previously seen in a lead film role. She was magnificently feline, as Pauline Kael says; dispensing slinky, fluttering phrases and quips, and making it clear what a laugh the character is having; she seems rather to be getting off on the entangled situation. The speech patterns are drolly created by Dunne; wonderful Southern hamming, or archetypal screwball dame quick-talk... Her warming, gadding-about voice is charms, along with deft facial acting; look at the "Oh Bianca..." scene at the hotel early on, where she sensuously reclines on a settee and gets Grant to pretend he is entering the room and kissing his new wife. Minxish mischief of the most heartwarming kind, aye...!

Remarkable to think that Ms. Dunne was over forty when this was made. She has the bearing of many years younger and conveys an impressive vigour. One takes to her unconventional good looks; her slight awkwardness as a 'star' is amusingly alluded to, under the surface, in her son's dialogue late on; very poignant little moment, that. Like Rosalind Russell and Kate Hepburn, she is no textbook beauty, and it is her characterful playing conveys a winking, winning attractiveness. Why is it that we have so few similarly idiosyncratic actresses around today? All - or rather much - has to be homogenised; pop star product looks are apparently required, and conveyor-belted into mainstream films. Film is missing the enticing depths of real-life when it opts for the conformist teenage boy's supposed 'dream woman' - mass-media-fostered - over a greater variety of people and appearances, as one encounters in actual reality.

The actor playing the world-weary, rather Robb Wilton-esquire magistrate ought to have been involved more than he was; an enjoyable turn, that would have been effectively woven deeper into the narrative. Randolph Scott amused slightly too, in his support role; a worthy foil. Things did perhaps get rather sentimental with the involvement of the couple's children, although this is hardly the worst such offender in Hollywood history. The insidious wryness seems completely blunted by the end, when the couple are finally reconciled. One may be charmed by the actors' performances, but it all starts to seem a bit indulgent, and the feeling grows that chances were missed.

But really, one must be indulgent, critically; there is priceless stuff in this film's fibre, and while it fires not on all screwball-comedy cylinders, it is a very pleasant feature with glorious screen presences making (deceptively) light of life.