“I’ve seen your picture in the paper and wondered what you looked like.”

A classic screwball comedy from 1937 starring Cary Grant and Irene Dunne. This film is regarded today as one of the best screwball comedies ever made. It helped to set an archetype for many other screwball comedies that followed it. Every thing about it just works. Though I’m having a hard time putting my finger exactly on what it is that makes it work so well. It’s hilarious, charming, delightful, and a lot of fun to watch. It’s a very nice way to spend a hour and a half.

Cary Grant and Irene Dunne are both so terrific in their roles. But when isn’t Cary Grant terrific? I haven’t seen a bad performance from him yet. Irene Dunne should be more well-known today. She is talented, funny, beautiful, and has a very lovely singing voice. The combination of Grant and Dunne together is dynamite! They play off each other very well, tossing lines back and forth with ease and precision. And oh those clothes that Dunne wears in the movie! Wow! She always (except for one very comical scene) looked so stylish and sophisticated.
Wonderful. Highly recommended.

...is that this movie just wasn’t very good.

I thought I would love this film. I love Cary Grant. I love films from the 30’s and 40’s. I was expecting screwball comedy. I was expecting crisp, sharp, snappy, riveting dialogue. I wanted strong interesting women (Hepburn, Stanwyck, Davis, Loy, etc.). I didn’t even care if the setting/plot were weak -those were just settings to see real stars shine and let the dialogue drag you from scene to scene laughing at the witty interchanges.

I was disappointed.

Irene Dunne was a terrible lead. A lot of her scenes were her sitting there looking perplexed with her mouth open (and w/ those atrocious curls stuck to her head!) The dialogue was boring and uninteresting. The plot was trite and predictable. Directing was uninspired. The final scene where they couldn’t sleep almost put us to sleep!

About the only positive I can say is Irene Dunne’s fashionable outfits were very interesting.

P.S. they never did explain where Grant’s character was when he claimed to be in FL – did they?

Except it was called “His Girl Friday” and “The Philadelphia Story” and it was a little better written. Probably good for seeing once, but I don’t plan on buying this one…