Irene Dunne, one of the screen’s most gifted and versatile actresses.
We continue our survey of the Twenty Greatest Movies of each decade.
Here’s Part One, in which we cover the era of silent movies.
Part Two, 1930 – ’33.
Part Three: 1934 – ’37.
Part Five: His Girl Friday, 1940
Part Six: Remember the Night, 1940.
Now, we move into the 1940′s, Hollywood’s last great era.
My Favorite Wife, 1940, casts Irene Dunne as Ellen Arden, who returns home after being shipwrecked for seven years on a tropical island. Her homecoming takes place on the very day that her husband, Nick, Cary Grant, is set to wed an aristocratic ice princess, played by the great Gail Patrick, who went on to become Executive Producer of the Perry Mason TV series. If the story sounds familiar, it should because it’s Tennyson’s “Enoch Arden,” hence the last name Arden.
This film is, of course, another comedy of remarriage, but the threat of bigamy adds an extra dose of comedic spice. My Favorite Wife is incredibly bold in its portrayal of modern anxieties. Irene Dunne leaves her family because she “was having a rough time with the children.” When Dunne drops this morsel we laugh nervously because, alas, the sentiment has the awful ring of truth.
Like all the best screwball comedies, proper behavior is turned on its head by playing with role reversals. When Dunne shows up at her house she is dressed as a merchant marine in oversized jacket and pants. Whereas Cary Grant, as always, is a vision of sartorial splendor. It’s Dunne who represents strength and solidity whereas Grant is a charming but weak man, anxious to please whichever woman he’s with at the moment. It’s the goofy but lovable personae that Grant practically invented.
The film is endlessly inventive and innocently wicked in its treatment of marriage and intimacy. The final scene shows Dunne lying comfortably in bed, happily torturing Grant by refusing to allow him to sleep with her. Grant wants to know when he will be allowed to enter her bedroom. Dunne smiles wickedly and says, “Oh, around Christmas.” Which is several months away. At his wit’s end, Grant exits. Terrible sounds are heard from the attic. Grant reappears in the bedroom door—dressed as Santa. The film’s final shot is of a leering Santa, leaving no doubt as to what happens next.
Garson Kanin, one of Hollywood’s finest screenwriters, took over as director when Leo McCarey was involved in a near fatal car crash. Sadly, McCarey got hooked on pain killers and along with his fondness for liquor, his subsequent career, one of the most brilliant in Hollywood, suffered a serious decline.
Cary Grant appears in more movies in this survey than any other actor: Gunga Din, His Girl Friday, The Awful Truth, with more to come. He was twice nominated for an Academy Award for best actor for his roles in Penny Serenade, 1941 and None But the Lonely Heart, 1944, the only Cary Grant film I actively hate.
Both times he was denied Hollywood’s most coveted honor. Grant was finally awarded an Honorary Award at the 42nd Academy Awards, 1970, “For his unique mastery of the art of screen acting with the respect and affection of his colleagues.”
Cary Grant was a Republican, but he never went public with his politics, explaining:
I’m opposed to actors taking sides in public and spouting spontaneously about love, religion, or politics. We aren’t experts on these subjects. Personally I’m a mass of inconsistencies when it comes to politics. My opinions are constantly changing. That’s why I don’t ever take a public stand on issues.
Good advice.
In 1948, Grant contributed generously to the newly established State of Israel. In 1953 he attended two fund-raising dinners celebrating Jerusalem as Israel’s eternal capital. Perhaps these connections to the Jewish state are the reason it was rumored he was Jewish. Grant was quite coy about his alleged Judaism, but the evidence for a Jewish mother or father is just rumor.
What is known about Grant and his mother is tragic, disturbing, positively Dickensian, and the great trauma of his life. When Grant was nine years-old, his mother suffered a nervous breakdown and was committed to an asylum. When little Grant came home from school, his father told him that his mother was dead.
Cary Grant only discovered the truth when he was thirty years-old. His mother was still alive. Their reunion and subsequent relationship was cordial but often strained. Grant supported his unstable mother for the rest of her life.
Married five times—Virginia Cherrill (1934–1935), Barbara Hutton (1942–1945), Betsy Drake (1949–1962), Dyan Cannon (1965–1967), Barbara Harris (1981–1986)—Cary Grant was unusually perceptive about his troubled relationships with women, observing:
I made the mistake of thinking that each of my wives was my mother, that there would never be a replacement once she left.
In 1929, the young actor Archie Leach, soon to be renamed Cary Grant, made a screen test for Paramount at their East coast studio in Astoria, N.Y. The screen test report was brief and brutal: “Good-looking. Neck too thick. No chance at all.”
For a master class in film acting, watch Grant and Dunne work their magic. She gently teases, trying to provoke her husband into making a decision. Grant, helpless and clueless, is a typical male, trying desperately to avoid hard decisions.
Memorable quote:
Cary Grant as Nick Arden: “The moment I saw you I knew…”
Irene Dunne as Ellen: “I bet you say that to all your wives.”
Ariel Chaim Avrech, ZT'L, May His Righteous Memory be a Blessing.
16 Comments
Arsenic & Old Lace has some very funny moments, none of them committed by Grant, but it’s not a film you can enjoy more than once.
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Thank you so much for the youtube link for Remember the Night. A few years ago I tried unsuccessfully to find it online; all there was at that time was just a clip.
After reading your post, I watched the movie. It was just as enjoyable as I hoped it would be. Barbara Stanwyck and Irene Dunne are my top two favorite female actresses from that era, as well as this one.
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Sal,
I saw that movie as well. They had a Cary Grant festival on Turner Movie Classics. I have to say…even though times have changed, and it was pre feminist movement…it was really kind of icky…and that girl was so stalkerish. Robert – I didn’t like Arsenic and Old Lace at all – and I was surprised because it was supposed to be such a great movie. And Cary Grant was mugging and making all these odd noises and faces…not the most charming.
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Sal:
Jean Arthur or Irene Dunne?
No contest.
Irene by a mile.
We have discussed this before and my feelings about Arsenic and Old Lace are unchanged. I agree with Cary Grant. His performance is over the top, shameless mugging. It was Grant’s least favorite film. I don’t hate it that much, that honor goes to None But the Lonely Heart,1944 written and directed by the unbearable Clifford Odets. He poured more fog into that film than all Sherlock Holmes films combined. But no amount of fog can obscure the film’s endless pretentions.
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Bill:
His Girl Friday did great business when it was released and it also garnered excellent reviews. I know quite a few people who find the film just exhausting. I find it refreshing.
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Mata Hari:
Most comedies turn on information not given. The trick is to make it totally believable. In My Favorite Wife Grant is presented as a coward, a man-boy who is scared to death of the quite formidable Bianca.
I completely buy it because Gail Patrick scares the heck out of me.
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Retro Hound:
It’s interesting and quite telling that Grant was nominated for two dramatic performances that are okay in pretty bad movies. Whereas his brilliant work in his best comedies and then Suspicion, Notorious and North by Northwest were ignored.
The Academy gets it wrong more often than not.
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Alter:
I’ll try calling Karen my favorite wife and see how it goes over. I have a sneaking suspicion it will not be good:-)
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mata hari-
If you liked “Room”, have you seen “Every Girl Should Be Married”? Same Grant/Drake pairing, with the added incentives of Franchot Tone, Diana Lynn and Eddie Albert.
The plot is a dinosaur, but oh, the crunchy chair!
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Was doing a movie survey once where one of the questions was:
Jean Arthur or Irene Dunne?
My head nearly imploded from the decision.
Love this so much- never miss it on TCM. Grant and a snappy dame never fail. But my favorite is ‘Arsenic and Old Lace’. I’m just an ensemble kind of gal…
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In my continuing cinematic education, I saw His Girl Friday yesterday. I was ambivalent about it – the plot zigged and zagged so much – it was like riding on the Mad Hatter at Disneyland.
)
The dialogue was so fast you really had to focus to keep up with it – but what I did catch were some zingers – like Grant’s character referring to “Archie Leach”.
You have to wonder how much of the 40s audience caught all that!
But seeing him in these 40s movies reveals a Grant I didn’t know – playing much different roles than I knew him in the 60s.
I just finished seeing To Catch A Thief – and it was interesting to learn that he was considering retirement before this film (1953) but was talked out it and continued making movies for another 11 years.
I believe it is these later movies that most of the world remembers Grant for (bad sentence but it is late
How I would have liked to attended one of his “1 man shows” late in his life…
Tomorrow it is on to Holiday….(the movie)
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When Grant was nine years-old, his mother suffered a nervous breakdown and was committed to an asylum. When little Grant came home from school, his father told him that his mother was dead.
The poor little boy never wondered why there was no funeral?
Nauseatingly cruel and stupid.
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By the time Enoch Arden comes back, his wife has already remarried. The long-lost sailor returning on the DAY his fiance is getting married is an episode in Charles Reade’s It is Never Too Late to Mend. Anyone who’s interested in how Jews are portrayed in English literature should read that book.
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I’ve seen this movie several times. Great chemistry with the two stars. I could never understand why he didn’t just tell Bianca the truth – but then I guess there’d be no plot.
One of the other Grant movies I like is Room for One More…where this couple takes in foster children. Very, very heartwarming.
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Wow, that’s amazing about Grant being told his mother was dead! Contrast that with The Big Heat where they tell the kid who’s mother was really dead being told she’s on vacation. I too love Cary Grant, but can’t stand Penny Serenade.
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Ha! I’ve always called Chana my favorite wife – and after almost fourteen years of marriage (thank G-d!) it still makes her nervous…
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