The film starts in a courtroom with lawyer Cary Grant (Nick) getting his 1st wife Irene Dunne (Ellen) pronounced legally dead by Judge Granville Bates. Dunne has been missing for 7 years and it's time for Grant to move on. Specifically, with Gail Patrick (Bianca). The Judge, after painfully dithering about – some people find this funny, I didn't – then agrees to marry Grant and Patrick, and they go off to their honeymoon. But what's this
first wife Irene Dunne returns home! She's not dead. She heads for the honeymoon hotel. What is everyone to do
.?
The cast are mainly good in this film. Cary Grant spars well with everybody, and especially with hotel clerk Donald MacBride. There are many funny scenes that include Grant's reaction in a hotel lift when he first sees Irene Dunne. He also has an amusing scene with Pedro de Cordoba (Dr Kohlmar) as he rifles through a wardrobe full of ladies clothes, explaining he is doing it for a friend, and "he's waiting outside". There is another amusing set-up with the story of Irene Dunne's male partner on the desert island – hunky Randolph Scott (Burkett). Dunne tries to pass off meek Chester Clute as the man she has innocently spent 7 years with to a knowing Cary Grant.
However, whilst, the film is entertaining and is easy to watch, it peters out at the end once the action moves to the mountain home. It gets sentimental and silly, and the film could have been resolved in a far more satisfactory manner. We are left with a few questions regarding the plot, such as what has Gail Patrick done to deserve what has just happened? Is Randolph Scott a complete carrot-eating moron? And Irene Dunne is actually pretty awful considering that she is meant to love Cary Grant. The children are a bit irritating and Irene Dunne has an annoying episode where she puts on a Southern accent, but, despite all of that, this is a fun film.
