The Awful Truth (1937)

‘Dan’ Leeson: Glad to know you.
Jerry Warriner: Well, how can you be glad to know me? I know how I’d feel if I was sitting with a girl and her husband walked in.
Lucy Warriner: I’ll bet you do.

After having seen this film yesterday, and more times than I can count before that, I still laughed out loud when I scouted out the clip below.  If that doesn’t qualify something as a classic comedy, I don’t know what does.

As the movie opens, Jerry Warriner (Cary Grant) is at his club trying to get a Florida tan under a sun lamp since Florida is where he is supposed to have been for the last two weeks.  He brings a group of friends home expecting his wife Lucy (Irene Dunne) to greet them with open arms.  She is nowhere to be seen and has apparently been away since the previous day.  Lucy walks in with her handsome singing instructor and a story about having to spend the night in the country after a car breakdown.  Jerry is outraged and refuses to believe her.  In the meantime, the oranges in the Florida fruit basket he has given his wife are stamped “California.”  Lucy demands a divorce, not because she suspects Jerry of cheating, but because he no longer trusts her.

Where did they get those hats???

They get an interlocutory divorce decree and the rest of the film follows their adventures while waiting for the decree to become final.  The principal occupation of each seems to be plotting to sabotage the romance of the other.  This can be gleefully accomplished as both have unerringly picked clearly unsuitable mates.  Lucy goes for hayseed Oklahoma oil tycoon Dan Leeson (Ralph Bellamy) who is tied to the apron strings of his possessive mother.  Jerry gets engaged to a stuffy high-society debutante.  Clearly the awful truth is that they still love each other.

Much of the film was reportedly improvised by McCarey and the cast and it shows in the delightful naturalness of the piece.  Dunne and Grant have remarkable chemistry as the battling couple.  I really like the fact that this movie is not as frenetic as some of the other screwball comedies.  The audience is allowed to catch its breath between the big laughs. All the supporting cast from Dixie Belle to the hapless Leeson are perfect.  Skippy the terrier is every bit as good here as in the Thin Man series.  Every film lover should give this a try.

McCarey won an Oscar for Best Director for The Awful Truth.  The film was also nominated for Best Picture, Best Actress (Irene Dunne), Best Supporting Actor (Ralph Bellamy) and Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay).

Clip – both renditions of “My Dreams Are Gone With the Wind”