My Favorite Wife (1940)

Director:

Garson Kanin

Writers:

Bella Spewack (original story) &
Sam Spewack (original story) ...
(more)

Release Date:

17 May 1940 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Romance

Tagline:

The funniest, fastest honeymoon ever screened!

Plot:

Missing for seven years and presumed dead, a woman returns home on the day of her husband's second marriage.

Plot Keywords:

Presumed Dead | Island | Marriage | Jealousy | Shipwreck

Awards:

Nominated for 3 Oscars.

Cast

Irene Dunne	...	Ellen
Cary Grant	...	Nick
Randolph Scott	...	Burkett
Gail Patrick	...	Bianca
Ann Shoemaker	...	Ma
Scotty Beckett	...	Tim
Mary Lou Harrington	...	Chinch
Donald MacBride	...	Hotel Clerk
Hugh O'Connell	...	Johnson
Granville Bates	...	Judge
Pedro de Cordoba	...	Dr. Kohlmar
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Jean Acker	...	Postponed Case Witness (uncredited)
Murray Alper	...	Yosemite Bartender (uncredited)
Leon Belasco	...	Waiter - Pacific Club Poolside (uncredited)
Joe Cabrillas	...	Phillip (uncredited)
Bill Cartledge	...	Page Boy Paging Burkett (uncredited)
Chester Clute	...	Shoe Salesman (uncredited)
Corky	...	Corky the Dog (uncredited)
Franco Corsaro	...	Waiter Bringing Wine (uncredited)
Florence Dudley	...	Postponed Case Witness (uncredited)
Harold Gerard	...	Assistant Court Clerk (uncredited)
Roque Guinart	...	Waiter (uncredited)
Earle Hodgins	...	Court Clerk Beside Judge Bryson (uncredited)
Edna Holland	...	Johnny Weissmuller Inquirer (uncredited)
Thelma Joel	...	Miss Rosenthal - Nick's Legal Secretary (uncredited)
Cy Kendall	...	Police Detective Arresting Nick (uncredited)
Ellen Lowe	...	Weissmuller Inquirer's Companion (uncredited)
Margaret Martin	...	Minor Role (uncredited)
Horace McMahon	...	Truck Driver Giving Lift to Ellen (uncredited)
Sue Moore	...	Maid Drying Ellen's Clothes (uncredited)
Bert Moorhouse	...	Postponed Case Lawyer (uncredited)
Clive Morgan	...	Postponed Case Lawyer (uncredited)
George Noisom	...	Page Boy Bringing Steve's Robe (uncredited)
Bob Reeves	...	Policeman Arresting Nick (uncredited)
Ronald R. Rondell	...	Bellboy #1 (uncredited)
Matty Roubert	...	Page Boy Paging Mr. Arden (uncredited)
Eli Schmudkler	...	Janitor (uncredited)
Pat West	...	Caretaker at Arden's Mountain Place (uncredited)

Directed by
Garson Kanin

Writing credits
Bella Spewack		(original story) &
Sam Spewack		(original story) (as Samuel Spewack) and
Leo McCarey		(original story)
Bella Spewack		(written for the screen by) &
Sam Spewack		(written for the screen by) (as Samuel Spewack)
Garson Kanin		uncredited
Alfred Lord Tennyson		poem "Enoch Arden" (uncredited)
John McClain		uncredited

Produced by
Leo McCarey	....	producer (uncredited)

Original Music by
Roy Webb

Cinematography by
Rudolph Maté		(director of photography)

Film Editing by
Robert Wise		(edited by)

Art Direction by
Van Nest Polglase

Set Decoration by
Darrell Silvera		(set decorations)

Costume Design by
Howard Greer		(gowns)

Makeup Department
Mel Berns	....	makeup artist (uncredited)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
James H. Anderson	....	assistant director
Ruby Rosenberg	....	assistant director

Art Department
Mark-Lee Kirk	....	associate art director

Sound Department
John E. Tribby	....	recordist

Other crew
Bert Granet	....	screenplay constructor (uncredited)

Production Companies

• RKO Radio Pictures (presents) (as RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.) (A Leo McCarey Production)

Distributors

• RKO Radio Pictures (1940) (USA) (theatrical) (as An R K O Radio Picture)
• C&C Television Corporation (1955) (USA) (TV) (syndication)
• RKO Radio Pictures Argentina (1940) (Argentina) (theatrical)
• RKO Radio Pictures (1947) (France) (theatrical) (as RKO Radio Films)
• Amazonas (1993) (Germany) (video)
• Kinowelt Home Entertainment (2000) (Germany) (video)
• Republic Pictures Home Video (1980s) (USA) (VHS)
• Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation (1968) (USA) (all media)
• Verleih Filmladen (1993) (Austria) (video)
• Warner Home Video (2004) (Canada) (DVD)
• Warner Home Video (2004) (USA) (DVD)
• Warner Home Video (2006) (USA) (DVD)
• Éditions Montparnasse (2003) (USA) (DVD)

Also Known As:

Runtime:

88 min | Germany:75 min (cut)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Recording System)

Certification:

Finland:S | Sweden:15 | UK:U (video rating) (1986) (1997) | USA:Approved (PCA #5974) | Canada:G (video rating) | West Germany:16 (nf) | UK:A (original rating) | Argentina:Atp

Filming Locations:

Ahwanee Hotel, Yosemite Valley, Yosemite National Park, California, USA

Company:

RKO Radio Pictures

Trivia:

"The Screen Guild Theater" broadcast a 30 minute radio adaptation of the movie on March 23, 1941 with Irene Dunne reprising her film role.

Goofs:

Errors in geography: The judge mentioned that Ellen was shipwrecked off the coast of Indochina. Nick mentioned that he went to Bangkok to interview survivors which makes sense if the shipwreck happened near Indochina. However, Ellen mentioned that she was located at Latitude 12, Longitude 128 which is 200 miles east of the Philippines and more than 1000 miles away from the closest part of the Indochina peninsula (which would be Vietnam). The nearest large city to that location would be Manila and not Bangkok.

Quotes:

Nick Arden:Impulsive? He's full of carrots!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Move Over, Darling (1963)

Soundtrack:

Jingle Bells

A Shakespearian masterpiece of farce.

Garson Kanin's best films are so bright, fast and funny, and have been plundered by so many pallid, feel-good imitators, that it's easy to overlook how courageously critical they can be, of prevailing social norms, for instance, what society takes to be normal - 'natural' - about crucial concepts like family, gender, marriage etc. In 'My Favorite wife', Kanin takes the idea that a particular social order is natural, and tears it apart, by putting civilisation on one side, nature on the other, and revealing that there's nothing remotely natural about civilisation, or our places in it; that these things are man-made, and so can be questioned, negotiated, even changed by man (or, as is more usual in Kanin's world, woman).

'Wife' opens with an elaborate sequence showing the structure of civilisation at work in its most intrinsic form - the legal system. The hero is a lawyer, and is trying to declare his missing first wife dead so he can marry another. There are a few things we notice here: the judge is hilarious, a cantankerous old buffer, testy, capricious, and not at all rigorous, or even knowledgeable in his application of laws which, after all, structure people's lives, and which, we learn, are constantly overturned by the Court of Appeals, so that something that should be inviolable is shown to be provisional. there is room for manoeuvre, but there is also room for corruption.

More important for Kanin's purposes are two incidental details. The wife has been missing for seven years, a fairy-tale or mythical number in a site of legal process, undermining its claims to ultimate, 'official' reality. The hero's name is Arden, which might remind us of Shakespeare's Forest ('As you like it'), and the spirit of play that will inform the film, with people assuming and discarding roles, putting on costumes, using props, putting on 'plays' or performances to deceive, enlighten or outmanoeuvre others.

On one level, this warns us against accepting appearances in a civilised world that depends on appearances (all the talk about respectability); on another, it shows that certain roles - like being a mother, or husband - aren't God-given, but roles which have to be constantly rehearsed and refined. Play can be subversive - the way Ellen Arden dresses up as a man, breaks up a marriage, or tries to conceal a possible adultery - but it is also seen as a necessary process of socialisation: the children learn to imitate their parents, as they theatrically make their lost mother 'perform' her confession. They learn that society is fluid, not fixed; they also learn to lie. (the hero winds up in an Attic (as in Greek comedy), but that might be taking the analogy to far!)

Hitchcock once said that he often used Cary Grant because he wanted to work against his established image. But the figure of masculine immaturity and insecurity so richly realised in Roger O Thornhill ('North by Northwest') is already fully-formed here in a 'hero' who jumps at any chance to avoid making difficult decisions. Kanin, like Hitchcock later, makes brilliant, ironic use of Grant's most famous previous roles: 'Topper', another story about a professional flustered by a 'ghost'; and, especially, 'Bringing up baby', not just in the comically ghastly leopardskin bathrobe his second wife buys him, but in the animal imagery used throughout (kids going to the zoo; Steve as Tarzan etc.), contrasting with his civilised world that is making him desperately unhappy, his identity and masculine certainty fragmenting. (knowledge that Grant used to live with Randolph Scott adds further comic potency to their scenes)

This conflict between Nick's civilisation and the 'natural' order is typically complicated - Nick clearly married Bianca for her sexual prowess; Ellen and Nick are compatible because of their intellectual superiority to everyone else (which gives a streak of cruelty to their games, and makes one feel genuinely sorry for BIanca).

'Wife' is a masterpiece of farce, of shared rooms, opening and shutting doors, frustrated sexuality, mixed identities - but what makes it a true classic are the flashes of whimsy - the Steve diving sequence that results in some the most bizarre, incongruous, and sidesplittingly funny visions ever seen on film.