Jerry and Lucy Warriner are a rich couple that just don't frickin' trust each other. Lucy just knows Jerry is fooling around with other women and Jerry just knows that Lucy's having an affair with her singing instructor, Duvalle.
So it's divorce time!
A judge OKs the divorce but it will take 90 days to kick in.
Over the course of those 90 days, Jerry and Lucy mess with each other as they try to move on with new romantic partners.
Lucy hooks up with Dan Leeson, an oilman from Oklahoma who is a friendly, down to earth type who seems to be an odd fit for the sophisticate urbanite Lucy. Jerry does what he can to screw up Lucy's relationship with Dan but that just makes her more determined to stick with Dan.
Jerry's dating Dixie Belle Lee, a sweet natured singer with a sexually suggestive act at a local nightclub which catches Jerry off guard when he sees it for the first time.
Still determined that Duvalle and Lucy are having an affair, Jerry bursts into Duvalle's apartment to expose their duplicity but instead barges into Lucy's recital.
Oh crap! Lucy really is a vocal student of Duvalle.
Double oh crap! Jerry realizes he's still in love with Lucy.
Triple oh crap! What exactly is Duvalle doing in Lucy' bedroom?!
Jerry's distrust gets the better of him and he gets in a fist fight with Duvalle and Lucy is more committed to Dan ever.
Except...
Quadruple crap! Lucy realizes she's still in love with Jerry.
Even as Jerry moves on to dating Barbara Vance, a high maintenance heiress from a stuck up high society family.
On the final night before the divorce becomes final, Lucy crashes a stuffy soiree at the Vance household, pretending to be Jerry's sister, she does everything she can to undermine Jerry's image as a sophisticated man of high society.
The cherry on the sundae is when Lucy performs Dixie's risqué musical number from earlier in the film.
The Vances are appalled.
Jerry attributes the behavior of his "sister" to being drunk and says he will drive her home.
They wind up staying at Lucy's old family cabin.
Jerry and Lucy are in separate bedrooms although there is an adjoining door that just will not stay shut.
Between that damn door always swinging open and Lucy just oozing with sensual allure from her moonlit bedroom, well Jerry just doesn't stand a chance.
The awful truth is they still love each other.
Apparently, director Leo McCarey made life a living hell for Cary Grant in the early days of filming. Seems McCarey's rather laid back approach to filmmaking was at odds with the more structured approach Grant was used to.
Eventually Cary Grant adjusted to the rhythms of Leo McCarey's unorthodox style with improvised dialogue and comic elements. The result is one of Grant's best comic performances that would inspire him in other classic comedies such as Bringing Up Baby.
Irene Dunne is sharp as tack with a rapier wit and she's sexy as hell. I don't mean "sexy for 1937". That look on her face in the cabin bedroom scene at the end reached out across the decades and made me feel squishy inside.
The ins and outs of the plot are secondary to the remarkable chemistry of Irene Dunne and Cary Grant. Even when they're screwing with each others lives, their snappy patter lights up the room. Even when they are at odds with each other, their connection is palpable and drives this movie.
With the fast paced comic banter and a twisty plot, the Awful Truth is the epitome of a classic golden age movie.
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