Summary
Jerry Warriner returns home after his holiday to find that his wife
Lucy has apparently got herself romantically involved with her music
teacher, Armand Duvalle. Lucy suspects that Jerry also has
something to hide, because he clearly hasn’t been to Florida as he
claims. The couple agree on an amicable divorce, and Lucy moves
out to live in an apartment with her mother. With what seems to
Jerry like indecent haste, Lucy soon finds herself another man, leaving
Jerry free to play the field and link up with a wealthy
socialite. Of course, Jerry and Lucy are still secretly in love
with one another and each sets about sabotaging the other’s new love
life...
Review
The film that catapulted Cary Grant from virtual obscurity to stardom
is one of the first great Hollywood screwball comedies, a genre that
proved to be extraordinarily popular in the late 1930s and early
1940s. This is the film in which Grant perfected his now familiar
screen persona and also marks the first of the actor’s appearances
along side Irene Dunne. They made a memorable screen couple and
would subsequently work together on My Favorite Wife (1940) and Penny Serenade (1941).
The Awful Truth began life as a popular stage comedy, first performed in 1922, and had been previously adapted for cinema, once in 1925 (starring Agnes Ayres and Warner Baxter) and then in 1929 (with Henry Daniell and Ina Claire). The film was remade, unsuccessfully, as the musical comedy Let’s Do It Again in 1953 (with Jane Wyman and Ray Milland).
Director Leo McCarey initially had a poor working relationship with Cary Grant, which came to a head when the former decided that Grant and the supporting actor Ralph Bellamy should switch roles. The two men patched things up and would work together on two subsequent films, Once Upon a Honeymoon (1942) and An Affair to Remember (1957). The film won McCarey the Best Director Oscar.
A seductive melange of sophisticated comedy and riotous slapstick, The Awful Truth is one of the funniest films to come out of Hollywood in the 1930s. Perfectly paced and with hilarious comic situations that have a touch of the old Feydeau farce about them, the film is a classic that is just as entertaining today as it was when it was made. The real star of the film is neither Grant nor Dunne, but rather a delightful fox terrier named Asta, who featured in The Thin Man series.
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The Awful Truth began life as a popular stage comedy, first performed in 1922, and had been previously adapted for cinema, once in 1925 (starring Agnes Ayres and Warner Baxter) and then in 1929 (with Henry Daniell and Ina Claire). The film was remade, unsuccessfully, as the musical comedy Let’s Do It Again in 1953 (with Jane Wyman and Ray Milland).
Director Leo McCarey initially had a poor working relationship with Cary Grant, which came to a head when the former decided that Grant and the supporting actor Ralph Bellamy should switch roles. The two men patched things up and would work together on two subsequent films, Once Upon a Honeymoon (1942) and An Affair to Remember (1957). The film won McCarey the Best Director Oscar.
A seductive melange of sophisticated comedy and riotous slapstick, The Awful Truth is one of the funniest films to come out of Hollywood in the 1930s. Perfectly paced and with hilarious comic situations that have a touch of the old Feydeau farce about them, the film is a classic that is just as entertaining today as it was when it was made. The real star of the film is neither Grant nor Dunne, but rather a delightful fox terrier named Asta, who featured in The Thin Man series.
© filmsdefrance.com 2009
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- Best French films of 2011
- Best French films of the 2000s
- Best of the French New Wave
- Best of French film comedy
- The best 100 French films
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Related links
- The best American romantic comedies
- Other American films of the 1930s
- The best American films of the 1930s
- Other American romantic comedies
- Biography and films of Leo McCarey
To buy this film
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Credits
- Director: Leo McCarey
- Script: Sidney Buchman, Viña Delmar, Arthur Richman
- Music: Ben Oakland
- Cast: Irene Dunne (Lucy Warriner), Cary Grant (Jerry Warriner), Ralph Bellamy (Dan Leeson), Alexander D’Arcy (Armand Duvalle), Cecil Cunningham (Aunt Patsy), Molly Lamont (Barbara Vance), Esther Dale (Mrs. Leeson), Joyce Compton (Dixie Belle Lee), Robert Allen (Frank Randall), Robert Warwick (Mr. Vance), Mary Forbes (Mrs. Vance), Claud Allister (Lord Fabian), Asta (Mr. Smith), Al Bridge (Motor Cop), Wyn Cahoon (Mrs. Barnsley)
- Country: USA
- Language: English
- Runtime: 91 min; B&W
Similar films
If you like this film you may also like the following:- A Night at the Opera (1935)
- Anchors Aweigh (1945)
- Christmas in July (1940)
- Father of the Bride (1950)
- Gold Diggers of 1935 (1935)
- Guys and Dolls (1955)
- Horse Feathers (1932)
- It Happened One Night (1934)
- My Favorite Wife (1940)
- On the Town (1949)
- Our Hospitality (1923)
- Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954)
- You Can’t Take It with You (1938)
- You Were Never Lovelier (1942)
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Comedy / Romance






