My favorite woman

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Movie
German title My favorite woman
Original title My Favorite Wife
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1940
length 89 minutes
Rod
Director Garson Kanin
script Sam Spewack ,
Bella Spewack
production Leo McCarey for RKO
music Roy Webb
camera Rudolph Maté
cut Robert Wise
occupation

My Favorite Wife (OT: My Favorite Wife ), and later in Austria and in Germany under the title My dearest wife released, is a screwball comedy with Irene Dunne and Cary Grant and directed by Garson Kanin from 1940. The inspiration for the plot served the poem Enoch Arden by Alfred Tennyson . In 1963 the plot with Doris Day and James Garner was re-filmed under the title One Too Many in Bed .

action

Ellen Arden was missing seven years after a shipwreck. Now, surprisingly, she returns to America and to her husband Nick Arden. Nick, who had his wife declared dead, has just married Bianca when he suddenly stands in front of the very lively Ellen. Nick still loves Ellen, but has difficulty explaining the unfamiliar situation to his new, second wife. Then it turns out that Ellen was not, as she claims, alone on the desert island, but in the company of the very attractive and rich Stephen Burkett, who is still courting her. After some tangles, Ellen and Nick find each other again and their marriage to Bianca is annulled.

background

Leo McCarey had directed the screwball comedy The Terrible Truth in 1937, with actors Irene Dunne and Cary Grant in the lead roles. There was no shortage of attempts to get the two stars back in front of the camera together. In 1938 Harry Cohn's plan to film The Bride's Sister with Irene Dunne and Cary Grant failed because of the opposition from director George Cukor , who insisted on Katharine Hepburn . The attempt to win over the two actors for his girl for special cases was also unsuccessful . The role eventually went to Rosalind Russell . In the end, Leo McCarey managed to reunite with Dunne and Grant in his version of Lord Alfred Tennyson's Enoch Arden , but only after the originally intended Jean Arthur had declined the role. The script changes the initial situation and leaves the wife instead of the husband stranded on the lonely island. McCarey originally wanted to direct himself, but a car accident just before filming started prevented the plan. Instead, the scriptwriter Garson Kanin took responsibility for the implementation. A short time later, the two stars made their third and last film together, the melodramatic romance Chords of Love .

The material was adapted several times in the following years. A thinly covered version ran almost simultaneously with My Dearest Wife under the title One Husband Too Many and presented Jean Arthur as a woman with two husbands, after Fred MacMurray returns after years of absence and she has in the meantime married Melvyn Douglas . In 1962 the attempt to bring Marilyn Monroe and Dean Martin to another remake under the title Something's Got to Give failed . In the end, the project was re-filmed with Doris Day and James Garner in 1963 and brought to the cinemas as one too many in bed .

Theatrical release

At $ 921,000, My Favorite Wife was an expensive production by RKO standards. The film proved to be successful at the box office, grossing a total of US $ 2,057,000 in the end. A profit of $ 505,000 made My Favorite Wife the second highest-grossing film of the year for RKO.

Reviews

The critics praised the lively production and the harmonious play of the two stars. The New York Times believed:

“[The movie] is a kind of refuge where we can all relax these days - a truly carefree farce, a rondo of slightly suggestive ambiguity, and an overall heartfelt movie in which Cary Grant and Irene Dunne are each other in the most charming way follow."

The lexicon of international film was mostly positive after a few decades:

"Largely enjoyable screwball comedy", the focus of which is the ongoing prevention of the wedding night. Good actors and funny situations lift the film over some of the book's weaknesses. "

Awards

The film went to the 1941 Academy Awards with three nominations , without winning any of the awards:

  • Best Score - Roy Webb
  • Best production design (black and white film) - Van Nest Polglase , Mark-Lee Kirk
  • Best Original Story - Leo McCarey, Bella Spewack, Sam Spewack

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ [The picture] is the sort of refuge we all can find pleasure in these days — a frankly fanciful farce, a rondo of refined ribaldries and an altogether delightful picture with Cary Grant and Irene Dunne chasing each other around most charmingly in it.
  2. ↑ My favorite woman. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed October 13, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used