“My Favorite Wife” is the February Movie Classic in Bigfork

This is about as “Screwball” a comedy you can get.  In “My Favorite Wife” Cary Grant (hunk number one), who is married with kids to Irene Dunne, gets married for the second time after his wife is declared legally dead. But, she is not dead, but marooned on a desert island with Randolph Scott (hunk number two). Irene shows up, finds out she is legally dead, and hubby is off with wife number two. She sets out to clear up the mess. It does not work out very well when wife one hires a mousey shoe salesman to play her island company, Grant does not buy the whole mess. But then add the law: if she is married to the two men at one time (bigamist) or not, the judge who needs to “fix” things is the same judge who declared Irene dead, and married Cary to his second wife. See how it all ends up on the big screen of the Edge Theatre in Bigfork shown by Jack Nachbar. It will be accompanied by Jack’s presentation providing a better understanding of the time period of the movie and maybe help unravel things at the same time.  Date: Thursday, February 8^th. Time: 6:30PM. Price: free of charge.

There was some true life drama going on behind the scenes during the production of this movie because it’s producer, Leo McCarey, was in a serious car accident and it was not known if he would live: kind of a hard backdrop for the actors to absorb when whey were trying to be “funny”. One of the actors in the movie, Gail Patrick, who played the second wife, recalled “…desperately trying to be funny as our producer, Leo McCarey, lay at death’s door..I never thought we entered into the spirit of that one. We couldn’t…waiting for bulletins from the hospital.”

McCarey got well enough to visit the set a couple of times, shooting got done with a movie that sort of dropped off at mid point and didn’t get funny any more. The actors went home waited for the results. And McCarey was left with a mess to clean up. When he reviewed what was there he came up with a great fix.  The judge’s part was originally dropped early in the film, and McCarey brought him back because he was really funny and with some good rewriting by McCarey himself and other writers, the end result was a great comedy. In fact it was one of the the last of its kind because WWII interrupted that sort of story telling for the time being.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Favorite_Wife

Irene Dunne (1898 – 1990) was an American film actress and singer whose career spanned three decades from the 1930s to the 1950s. She has been described as, “…the best actress to never win an Oscar but was nominated for four times, and was given Kennedy Center Honors for her work as an actress. She once commented in an interview, that she “…lacked the ‘terrifying ambition’ of some other actresses and said, I drifted into acting and drifted out…” Dunne has 44 films and 25 television and radio shows to her credit,  a star on Hollywood’s walk of fame and displays in the Warner Bros. museum and center for motion picture study.

Cary Grant (1904 – 1986) was an English – American actor and is known as the “definitive” handsome leading man.  He had a pronounced “English” and smooth stage personality that fit very nicely in that leading man role in the 76 or so film credits he  earned from 1932 and 1976.  The American Film Institute named Cary the second greatest male film star of the Golden Age Hollywood.  Grant was nominated twice for Oscars and received an Honorary Oscar. His working relationship with Alfred Hitchcock got him four roles in Hitchcock movies and it is said that the director loved working with him.

Randolph Scott (1898 – 1987) was an American film star whose career spanned five decades from 1928 to 1962. His lasting image is of the “…man who sat tall in the saddle…” Of his more than 100 films, more than 60 were westerns. But as this film shows his talents went beyond the cowboy film, and he could handle them very well. Scott’s films included social dramas, comedies, musicals (non singing or dancing roles) adventure movies, war films and even a few horror/fantasy films. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Leo McCarey (1898 – 1969).  As said earlier, a lot of the credit for this film’s success is due to the work of its writer/producer, Leo McCarey.  His work on “My Favorite Wife” made it the second biggest hit for RKO in 1940.  McCarey can certainly take credit for that achievement.  He had previous experience with Grant and Dunn in previous work and therefore familiar with their talents.

Leo was a three time Academy Award winning director, screenwriter and producer. He was involved in nearly 200 films is best known for his work in comedies.  For “My Favorite Wife” he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Writing, Original Story.  Interestingly he focused mostly on “screwball” comedies before the war and, later, turned his talents towards more socially conscious and religious films.  He achieved success and acclaim in both genres. 

So come enjoy a great “screwball” comedy film on the big screen the of the Edge in Bigfork. Date and time: Thursday February 8^th  at 6:30PM. It will be worth going to Bigfork, because Jack will provide you with background about the movie and a cartoon of the period. An appropriate snack will be served courtesy of Jack and his wife/projectionist, Lynn.