We're officially in the thick of Oscar season, so let's add another page to the Oscar Film Journal, here at Enuffa.com!
Still in the weeds of the 1930s (YouTube is a treasure trove of old public domain stuff), specifically the year 1937 and a screwball comedy by Duck Soup director Leo McCarey. It's The Awful Truth, starring Irene Dunne and Cary Grant. Based on a 1922 play, The Awful Truth is a simple story about a wealthy couple who have fallen out of love, and each is convinced the other is fooling around. The husband, Jerry, returns home after a bender with the guys, having told his wife he'd be in Florida (He gets a fake tan to add to the subterfuge). Meanwhile Lucy spent the night, apparently platonically, with her voice teacher Armand, triggering Jerry's jealousy. The distrust has reached a breaking point and the couple decide to get a divorce. Lucy goes to live with her aunt, whose neighbor Dan (Ralph Bellamy) is a rich, unmarried oil man. Lucy and Dan begin dating and eventually get engaged. Meanwhile Jerry has been granted visitation rights to his wife's dog Mr. Smith, giving him an avenue to cockblock Lucy and Dan's relationship. Then later in the film Lucy gets some payback when Jerry starts dating a rich heiress, crashing her parents' dinner party in the guise of Jerry's sister. Lots of comedic misunderstandings in this film, some of it reminiscent of the Marx Brothers. The upshot of course is that Jerry and Lucy realize they still have feelings for each other, just as their divorce is being finalized.
This story had been twice adapted for the screen prior to this version, but neither made the splash this one did. Dunne and Grant have excellent chemistry together; both are quite charismatic and their comedic bickering and jealousy traps drive the film. Leo McCarey abandoned most of the script he was given and opted instead for lots of improvisation, giving the film a looser, more chaotic, unpredictable feel. The cast had a very hard time adjusting to this style of filmmaking, particularly Grant, who at one point tried to get out of making the film altogether. There's a scene where Lucy and Dan sing "Home On the Range" together, which McCarey insisted was just being filmed as an exercise. Both actors were appalled to find it was included in the final film, particularly since Ralph Bellamy couldn't sing and Irene Dunne was an amateur piano player. Eventually though, the cast came to trust McCarey's process, and the resulting film is rife with fun banter and physical gags.
The film's payoff however is a mite underwhelming. After Lucy crashes Jerry and his girlfriend's party, Jerry explains to his prospective new in-laws that she's drunk and proceeds to drive her home. Lucy sabotages the car and they end up spending the night at Lucy's aunt's cabin. The two then more or less confess their continued feelings for each other, Lucy says "good night," and the film ends. That's it? No kiss or anything? I know the Hays Code was constrictive but it felt like the movie was building to a more definitive ending than it ended up with. I suppose these two prideful characters were too guarded to really tell each other how they feel, but I think a bit of genuine sentiment at the end would've helped the film feel more complete.
Overall The Awful Truth is an amusing little film featuring two lead performances that are very fun to watch. Cary Grant's charm is well-documented, but Irene Dunne is downright magnetic here, a mix of wholesome attractiveness and witty repartee, with a real vulnerability buried beneath her snappy exterior. Leo McCarey's insistence on improv was the right choice; there's a feeling that anything could happen. One wonders how much films like this influenced the work of Judd Apatow, Adam McKay and Paul Feig decades later.
I give the film *** out of ****.
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