My Favorite Wife

My favorite wife (OT: My Favorite Wife), published in Austria and later in Germany under the title My dearest wife, is a screwball comedy with Irene Dunne and Cary Grant, directed by Garson Kanin from 1940 as inspiration for. the plot was the poem Enoch Arden by Alfred Tennyson. 1963 action with Doris Day and James Garner under the title was too much a new film in bed.

Action

Ellen Arden was missing after a shipwreck seven years. Now she returns unexpectedly returned to America and her husband Nick Arden. Nick, who had explained his wife was dead, has just married Bianca, when he is suddenly standing in front of very vivid Ellen. Nick loves Ellen still trying, but it has difficulties of his new, second wife to explain the unfamiliar situation. Then it turns out that Ellen, as alleged by her was not alone on the desert island, but very attractive and rich Stephen Burkett, who still makes in the company of her yard. After a few complications Ellen and Nick find each other again and the marriage with Bianca is canceled.

Background

Leo McCarey had in 1937 resulted in the screwball comedy The Awful Truth with the two actors Irene Dunne and Cary Grant in the lead roles directed. It was missing in the aftermath of attempts to bring the two stars together again in front of the camera. 1938 the plan failed by Harry Cohn, with Irene Dunne and Cary Grant to turn the sister of the bride, the resistance of director George Cukor, who insisted on Katharine Hepburn. Nor was the attempt successful in winning the two actors for His Girl Friday. The role eventually went to Rosalind Russell. In the end it managed Leo McCarey, with Grant and Dunne in its version of Lord Alfred Tennyson's poem Enoch Arden to reunite, but only after the originally planned Jean Arthur had refused the role. The script changes the initial situation and lets the stranded wife instead of the husband on the desert island. Originally wanted McCarey himself directing, but a car accident just before shooting prevented the plan. Instead, the screenwriter Garson Kanin claimed responsibility for implementation. The two stars turned short time later, her third and last film together, the melodramatic romance chords of love.

The fabric was still adapted several times in the following years. A thinly laminated version ran almost the same time with my dearest wife under the title A husband too much and presented Jean Arthur as a woman with two husbands after Fred MacMurray returns after years of absence, and they got married in the meantime Melvyn Douglas. 1962, the attempt to bring with Marilyn Monroe and Dean Martin re- remake titled Something 's Got to Give to completion. At the end of the project with Doris Day and James Garner was remade in 1963 and marketed as an extra in bed in the cinemas.

Theatrical Release

At a cost of 921,000 U.S. dollars My favorite was a woman expensive for RKO production conditions. The film proved to be successful at the box office and played at the end of a total of 2.057 million U.S. dollars. A profit of 505,000 U.S. dollars made ​​My favorite woman to become the second most successful film of the year for RKO.

Reviews

The critics praised the lively staging and the harmonious interplay of the two stars. The New York Times was the view:

" [ The film ] is a kind of refuge, where we all can find relaxation in these days - a truly carefree farce, a rondo slightly suggestive ambiguities and an overall warm film in which Cary Grant and Irene Dunne each other on the charming type. follow "

Awards

The film went with three nominations in the Academy Awards ceremony in 1941 without winning one of the prizes:

  • Best Original Score - Roy Webb
  • Best Art Direction (black & white ) - Van Nest Polglase, Mark -Lee Kirk
  • Best Original Story - Leo McCarey, Bella Spewack, Sam Spewack
1940 in film Screenplay RKO Pictures Film score Robert Wise Screwball comedy film Move Over, Darling Holiday (1938 film) Penny Serenade Too Many Husbands 13th Academy Awards
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