The Awful Truth (1937) Directed by Leo McCarey

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(Review originally written at 22 September 2008)

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Cary Grant is absolutely brilliant in this movie and lets it work out as a fun romantic comedy. He is great as a man who is giving his ex-wife to be a hard time, when she gets engaged to a rich southern oil man. In the end the roles get turned around and the Irene Dunn character gets to give the Grant character a hard time. It makes this a rather fun movie to watch, though I wouldn't call it Leo McCarey's finest movie but that says something more about his qualities than that of this actual movie.

It has a fun typical 1930's genre story and the movie can be seen as a screwball comedy, though its not the best genre example of it, since the movie besides its screwball elements also feature many other, more subtle, comedy styles. It sort is too bad though that the actors obviously had to improvise at times. It gives the movie a sort of a realistic look into how Cary Grant and Irene Dunn worked as actors but it doesn't always provide the movie with some much needed great witty dialog and fine written comedy moments. Sometimes the directing and editing feels like it was done too hasty, with at times as a result an end result that isn't quite what it should had and could had been. Nevertheless Leo McCarey still received an Oscar for his directing of this movie. It was the only Oscar the movie won as well but it was nominated in 5 more categories though, including best picture of the year.

But no I don't want to let this movie sound bad, for it really is a movie which I enjoyed watching. Its characters, its story and its actors simply make sure that this is a movie to enjoy.

8/10