One husband too many

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Movie
German title One husband too many
Original title Too Many Husbands
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1940
length 84 minutes
Rod
Director Wesley Ruggles
script Claude Binyon
production Wesley Ruggles
for Columbia Pictures
music Friedrich Hollaender
camera Joseph Walker
cut Otto Meyer
occupation

A husband too much (OT: Too Many Husbands ) is an American film comedy from 1940 with Jean Arthur , Fred MacMurray and Melvyn Douglas , directed by Wesley Ruggles . The play Home and Beauty by W. Somerset Maugham served as a template .

action

Exactly a year after her husband died in a boating accident, Vicky Cardew stands at the altar again to marry the family's best friend, Henry Lowndes. Then the supposedly different man who had to spend the last year lonely on an island suddenly stands in the door and Vicky suddenly has two husbands. The two rivals for Vicky's love go to great lengths and the young woman enjoys the effort and the many gifts. Vicky ends up on trial for bigamy, which Bill declares the legal husband to be. Henry refuses to accept the verdict and continues to try to get Vicky. In the end, Vicky decides for Bill, but she is not so sure.

background

The plot about a spouse believed to be dead and who immediately returns to remarry his other half is almost identical to what happened in My Favorite Wife , which hit theaters a few months later. However, A Husband Too Much is based on the play Home and Beauty by W. Somerset Maugham , while for My Favorite Wife the ballad Enoch Arden by Alfred Tennyson served as the inspiration for the plot .

Due to the frivolous initial situation, the studio had considerable problems with the censorship provisions of the Production Code , which saw its requirements, according to which the institution of marriage should be sacred and should not be degraded under any circumstances, violated. The censors also found that bigamy should not be the subject of comedy. In the end, the studio prevailed with a slightly weakened version that leaves open whether Vicky and Henry will actually consummate the marriage. Wesley Ruggles shot two final scenes. In one the choice falls on Henry, in the other on Bill.

In 1955 Columbia filmed the material again, this time as a musical with Betty Grable and Jack Lemmon . The censor also had the same reservations about the script 15 years later.

Awards

At the Academy Awards in 1941 , the film received a nomination in the category:

  • Best tone

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