Cinema Sunday: My Favorite Wife

It's been awhile since I wrote about a classic black & white movie here on Cinema Sunday. 

Today we go back to 1940 for a screwball comedy that's sure to be a classic, My Favorite Wife starring Cary Grant & Irene Dunne who teamed up before for The Awful Truth which we posted about in September 2021.  

It's been seven years since Ellen Arden (Dunne) was lost at sea.  Lawyer Nick Arden (Grant) has his wife declared legally dead so he can marry Bianca. 

In court, Judge Bryson declares Ellen legally dead and marries Nick and Bianca. It's a lot for the judge to wrap his head around. 

Guess who isn't dead? Yep, turns out Ellen was shipwrecked on a deserted island and has only now been rescued.   

And she's back in time for the first night of Nick's honeymoon with Bianca.  Well, that timing sucks. 

Nick wigs out when he spots Ellen and isn't sure how to break the news to Bianca.  Bianca is really weirded out by Nick's behavior and is really frustrated by the nonconsummation of their marriage. (Translation: Bianca is horny is hell, needs to get laid and her arranged booty call ain't putting out.)  

To fuck with Nick's mind some more, it turns out Ellen was not on her deserted island but with a guy named Steve. A tall, muscular dude with blonde hair that Ellen was alone with on an island for 7 years and insists she did not have sex with him. 

(Remember, this movie is laboring under the Hays Code for movie censorship.) 

Then Nick is arrested for bigamy and brought before Judge Bryson who is ever more confused than he was before with the woman he declared dead is now in the courtroom. Eventually he sorts out what's going on well enough to annul Nick and Bianca's marriage leaving Nick and Ellen free to be married again.

Except Ellen isn't sure of Nick's feelings for her and fucks with his head a bit before she realizes he still loves her and she loves him and it's... the end. 

When we watched this movie, Andrea thought it was very funny and sweet. And I can see her point. But a lot of my enjoyment of the film was diminished due how much the movie relies on Nick Arden carrying the idiot ball.  

Much of the confusion and complications that drive the film only happen because Nick is a stupid jerk. Bianca is treated badly by Nick in this film simply because he doesn't seem to know better. If there was plot point that made it necessary for Nick to not tell Bianca that his 1st wife is not dead right now, OK, I could work with that. 

One can make the point that Nick had mourned the loss of Ellen, made peace that she was gone and was ready to move on with someone new and this was not an easy process for him and then to just have the woman he thought was dead to just pop up and on his honeymoon, well, that could make anyone a bit crazy. I concur but after awhile the lengths Nick goes to in order to not tell Bianca the truth just come off as unnecessarily cruel Bianca.     

My Favorite Wife is considered a classic screwball romantic comedy and I can objectively see how others would consider it so. But this movie is in my humble opinion not a good look for Cary Grant. 

Next week, Cinema Sunday goes even further back in time, to 1934, for what many film critics consider the quintessential classic screwball romantic comedy.