Wife, Husband and Friend (1939)

Director:

Gregory Ratoff

Writers:

James M. Cain (novel) and
Nunnally Johnson (writer)

Release Date:

3 March 1939 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

Woman hopes to be a great singer and is encouraged by her scheming teacher. After she flops her husband...

Plot Keywords:

Singer | Beautiful Woman | Based On Novel

Cast

Loretta Young	...	Doris Borland
Warner Baxter	...	Leonard Borland aka Logan Bennett
Binnie Barnes	...	Cecil Carver
Cesar Romero	...	Hugo
George Barbier	...	Major Blair
J. Edward Bromberg	...	Rossi
Eugene Pallette	...	Mike Craig
Helen Westley	...	Mrs. Blair
Ruth Terry	...	Carol (secretary)
Alice Armand	...	Sally Bostwick
Iva Stewart	...	Miss Carver's secretary
Dorothy Dearing	...	Mrs. Price
Helen Ericson	...	Mrs. Spalding
Kay Griffith	...	Nancy Sprague
Harry Rosenthal	...	Bill Wilkins - Pianist

Runtime:

75 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-16

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

When Nunnally Johnson remade the picture as Everybody Does It (1949) he used the exact same script without doing any rewriting.

Movie Connections:

Version of Everybody Does It (1949)

Soundtrack:

Arlesiana

The Thin Man meets opera

"The Thin Man meets Opera" is the best way I can describe the character of this romantic comedy, it is such an unusual movie and so funny. Warner Baxter and Loretta Young star as a contractor husband and his society wife, Leonard and Doris Borland. Leonard's contracting business hasn't been doing so well - a fact he's been concealing from his wife in hopes that things turn around. Doris wants to try at a singing career. Leonard decides Doris just needs to get it out of her system and twists the arm of everyone in town that he knows to come to his wife's singing debut so that it will be a success, hoping that this one event will put an end to her efforts. You see, the problem is that Doris is actually a terrible singer.

The other problem is that Mr. Borland is actually a tremendous singer. This is discovered when he runs into a professional singer, Cecil Carver (Binnie Barnes) who suggests Mr. Borland go on a singing tour with her. With his business being hard up for cash, Mr. Borland accepts, but has to be careful to conceal what's going on from his wife, who in the meantime is having a hard time getting any more audiences for her singing.

Strong support comes from Eugene Palette as Leonard Borland's business partner in the contracting firm, and there is a small bit done by a very young Cesar Romero as someone who is supportive of Doris Borland's singing efforts. I'd never seen Warner Baxter do comedy before, and it was quite a treat, especially when he bursts into song with an obviously dubbed baritone voice. Catch this one if it comes your way.