untitled
THE AWFUL TRUTH
Directed by: Leo McCarey
Internet Movie
Database Entry for full details
GRADE: B+ (3.0/4)
1937.
The Awful Truth is
a bit darker than your average screwball comedy, and features some
pretty racy sexual and infidelious subtext. It’s
also a unique example of the “comedy of remarriage”
in that the plot begins before, and continues throughout, the divorce
proceedings. Most of those such films, like His Girl Friday,
start off well after the finalization of the divorce.
Jerry (Cary Grant) and Lucy (Irene Dunne) just can’t go on
together with suspicious minds, so they decide to get a
divorce. When each becomes engaged, the other goes to lengths
to sabotage the new relationship. Now having seen His Girl Friday
(why can’t I stop talking about it?) all other screwball
comedies, including this one, seem to move at a snail’s pace,
and everyone talks as slowly as though they were Canadians.
There is a marvelous scene, however, in which Lucy pretends to be
Jerry’s prodigal sister in an effort to make a bad impression
on his fiancé’s family.
Grant, as always, shines, but this belongs on the B-list of his
‘30s comedies. --
Henry Stewart
See
our review of His Girl
Friday
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