The Awful Truth

Rating:
Summary: Best Screwball comedy
Review: Don't listen to that malcontent from Russia. This is one of the best screwball comedies ever made. Grant and Dunne are perfection.

Rating:
Summary: A definition of screwball comedy
Review: Leo McCarey had no concrete ideas about where the story would take his cast when he began shooting THE AWFUL TRUTH. He knew he had a first rate cast and a glint of an idea. The uncertainty of it made Cary Grant try to back out and the other cast members skeptical. The result, however, is a classic screwball story of the inevitably of two people losing each other and then rediscovering each other when standing back a distance. Irene Dunne, whose acting technique was extremely natural and ahead of its time, was a gem in this film. With scenes largely improvised, both she and Grant proved themselves wonderful actors with clear notions of who their characters were and how they felt about one another. Ralph Bellamy is the hopeless suitor and does an impromptu musical number accompanied by Ms. Dunne, which proves to us why he never starred in any musicals. A wonderful comedy achievement with hysterical moments.

Rating:
Summary: Lackluster twin to My Favorite Wife
Review: Sorry to say it, but I find this to be a lack-luster twin to My Favorite Wife. The character interaction is shallow, and missing the magic that was so funny between Grant and Dunn. I love most of Grant's films, but this one goes on the back shelf for when I need something to put me to sleep.

Rating:
Summary: A screwball highlight!
Review: From the heyday of the screwball comedies, this amusing and often hilarious romantic farce shows Hollywood in its best light vein. "The Awful Truth" provides a consistently witty script, memorable scenes and lines, smooth comedy direction, and established Cary Grant in a genre which he made his own, and typecast Ralph Bellamy for years (his "type" was hysterically sent-up in "His Girl Friday"). Typical of the vintage comedies of the thirties, the laughs are neither telegraphed nor forced; pleasantly rewarding for the audience who like their comedy to connect with their funny bone via their brain, and not their glands. Diverting fare of the most amusing kind!

Rating:
Summary: McCarey Magic!!
Review: If you start with a Leo McCarey...add cary Grant and Irene Dunne...and sprinkle in a Ralph Bellamy....that is the formula for great comedy. Dunne matches Grant line for line...and Bellamy plays his "other"man role perfectly. Not only is " My Favorite Wife" another superb Grant/Dunne Vehicle..I also urge you to see " Penny Serenade" Its not a comedy..but it illuminates the chemistry between these two perfectly. A:

Rating:
Summary: This Movie is a Ten
Review: Cary Grant and Irene Dunne are hilarious in this old time comedy. This one is a classic (but what isn't with Cary Grant?). If you enjoy a funny outlook about marital problems, this is for you. A little on the line of "My Favorite Wife", C.G. and I.D. each take turns in the dog house. And don't forget Mr. Smith and his piano tricks! I truly give this "thumbs up".

Rating:
Summary: Hilarious romantic comedy
Review: This 1937 "screwball" comedy with Cary Grant and Irene Dunne is easily one of the most hilarious romantic comedies I have ever seen. A brilliant script, fantastic acting, good supporting, interesting direction, and good gags combine to pull it off. I randomly selected it from the store, and couldn't have been more surprised. Cary Grant is absolutely hilarious. His command of facial expression, self-effacement, and his timing make his performance perfect. Irene Dunne exudes wit and humor.

Incisive writing makes for witty and often biting word-play, so the script is infinitely funnier and more sophisticated than the current drek like YOU'VE GOT MAIL. Although there are gags, the movie does not have to rely on people falling out of chairs to make it to the credits (although that scene is absolutely hysterical). I could go on, but why bother? See it for yourself, you won't regret it.

My only complaint: The transfer to VHS was awful. The sound was often dead and the picture quality was sub-rate and scratchy. If they ever issue a DVD release, hopefully Columbia will have the class to do a better job on it.

Rating:
Summary: Sheer Entertainment
Review: One of several tremendously fun screwball comedies Grant made in the relatively early part of his career. In actuality, he had already been in nearly 30 movies before he made this one. In 1932, his debut year, he was in seven movies. He was in six in '33 and so on. I guess the idea was to be in as many movies as possible in hopes something would get noticed. Also, under the studio system, inexperienced or not particularly in demand actors were at the studio's mercy and the studio could work them to death if they felt like it. Only fame gave an actor enough power to call his own shots. That Grant was paired with Dunne is a happy coincidence. Their timing and chemistry are perfect. Talent makes all the difference. Dunne was more famous and accomplished at the time. She had already been nominated for an Academy Award for Cimarron. Grant was still perfecting his witty, offhand, debonair and slightly amoral screen persona. He had been in She Done Him Wrong w/ Mae West and that got him on the map but the late 30's were his breakout period with Topper and The Awful Truth.

Rating:
Summary: Decent movie, Bad release.
Review: Cary Grant and Irene Dunne star in this very funny Screwball comedy directed by Leo McCarey who won the oscar for Best Director. The film was released in 1937 and was nominated for 6 Academy Awards.

The story of it is basically, Jerry and Lucy (Cary Grant and Irene Dunne) are a married couple who decide to get a divorce, since they both suspect they are cheating. Lucy finds herself getting engaged to a rich millionaire, named Daniel (Ralph Bellamy, in yet another great role). Jerry and Lucy even try to decide in a court, who is going to get custody over their dog, Mr Smith (Yes, the dog!). Lucy wins, while Jerry gets visiting rights, to see Mr. Smith. This keeps the two seeing each other, and you can guess how it turns out in the end.

The movie is very fast moving, extremely funny, and you will see why it was so successful on its release. The performances are top-rate, and Ralph Bellamy always adds great support to anything he's in.

The print on this DVD is not really very good and the sound is not great either, (You might like to compare it to Columbia's other poor effort for the DVD of `Holiday') but it is worth buying and still very watchable, I am not trying to say it isn't. They just could have done better with it. It has a total lack of extras also.

Even though it has a slightly poor release that could have been a lot better, I would still recommend this brilliant film which I am sure anybody will enjoy. Just don't expect too much from the Disc itself.


Rating:
Summary: An almost perfect movie
Review: There are a few great films that never go out of style and seem impervious to time, and this is one of them. Unlike some pre-WW II comedies that are still a delight but nonetheless feel like they come from another era, THE AWFUL TRUTH seems almost as if it could have been made a decade ago. Part of the reason for this was the enormous amount of improvisation that Leo McCarey managed to get out of his performers. Many of the best moments in this film were made up on the spot. As a result, the film retains a wonderful feel of spontaneity and naturalness that few films from the period can match.

Apart from the great direction by McCarey, much of the credit has to go to Cary Grant and Irene Dunne. Unbelievably, this was Cary Grant's first great performance as a comedic leading man. In fact, although Grant was a familiar face from his appearance in Mae West's SHE DONE HIM WRONG (a film he personally detested), he was not really an A-list performer. Early in 1937 he had starred with Constance Bennett in TOPPER as a mischievous but fun loving ghost. It was the first great indication that he possessed first rate abilities as a comic, and led to his casting in THE AWFUL TRUTH. After this, however, he managed to go on to star in an extraordinary string of comedies, arguably the greatest group of comedic roles by any one actor in the history of film. I have never been a big Irene Dunne fan. I always feel uncomfortable with her oversized teeth and enormous smile. But she absolutely shines in this film. If she and Cary don't generate the kind of chemistry he would with Katherine Hepburn, they still manage to set up some absolutely marvelous comic scenes.

My favorite scenes in the film are those that include Ralph Bellamy, one of the great also-rans in the history of film. In both this film and three years later in MY GIRL FRIDAY, Cary Grant makes him the butt of a string of truly funny jokes. The best in this one comes when Cary with his girlfriend meet his ex-wife Irene in a nightclub with her new fiancé Ralph, playing an Oklahoma oil millionaire. As the two explain to Grant how they plan on moving to Oklahoma City. Cary sticks a knife in by expressing amazement that a woman who is addicted to life in New York City expects to find contentment in Oklahoma, and then twists it by evilly consoling her with the suggestion that on weekends they can take a trip to Tulsa.

The dog who plays the Jack Russell Terrier "Mr. Smith," was probably in more great movies than any dog in film history. He not only played Asta in the first three Thin Man movies but also played a year after this film in the hysterically funny BRINGING UP BABY (as "George," the dog who steals the bone and buries it somewhere), and in one of the Topper films.