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I am not the biggest screwball comedy fan, since most movies just don't seem to really quite got 'it' and are more or less often too much more of the same and they get drowned by the movie its clever story and low key sentiments. "My Favorite Wife" was however a screwball movie that I really enjoyed watching.
It features all of the typical screwball elements, in which an odd unusual situations and how the characters handle them plays the central key element of the movie. Things get worse and worse when they get deeper and deeper into trouble when more facts slowly surface. It's a well written story that offers plenty of surprises with its moments and main plot-line, even though of course the movie in a sense is mostly predictable, just like any other genre movie.
Who knows, perhaps the movie would had been even better if indeed Leo McCarey ended up directing it, like originally was intended. He however got involved in an automobile accident shortly before the filming of this movie and he had to pass on the directing honers to less experienced Garson Kanin. Kanin obviously didn't do a bad job with it but McCarey was of course more experienced in the genre and was definitely most at ease and in his element with directing these type of movies. He has some great classics below his belt, also prior to the release of this movie. McCarey still served as the writer and producer of the movie though, so his touch is still notable within the movie.
The more I see of Cary Grant as a comedy actor, the more I start to like and appreciate him as one. He is of course still best known for the roles he played in Alfred Hitchcock movies but he successfully started off his career with movies such as this one. He was a great comedy actor who could play a regular guy, despite his always good look. While watching this movie it by the way also made me think; 'Wow, this guy would had made a great James Bond!'. Later I found out that he was actually asked to play the James Bond character in the first 1962 Bond movie "Dr. No" but he turned it down because he believed to be too old already at the time to play the character. He stars in this movie with Irene Dunn, with who he has appeared in in several movies together throughout their career, which also all happen to be the same type of movies. Both were just 2 of the best and most successful genre actors at the time.
One of the better movies that the '30's screwball genre has to offer.
8/10
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