Or, as Irene Dunne says, "the Mulligan stew", which gets a laugh in court as she reveals she is the wife who came back to life after being declared legally dead when her husband (Cary Grant) went off and married another woman (Gail Patrick). In the same year as the sexually reversed "Too Many Husbands" (which is about just what the title indicates), "My Favorite Wife" is the more remembered of the two, probably because it has a fast moving and funny screenplay where everything comes together perfectly.
Those who have seen this film's Doris Day/James Garner remake ("Move Over Darling") first will have little trouble recognizing the same structure which only changes at the end. The story opens with Grant in court going through the legal procedure of having the long-missing Dunne declared dead just so he can immediately marry the somewhat temperamental Patrick. Dunne shows up immediately afterwards, encountering her two children and mother-in-law, then heading off to the hotel where she and Grant initially spent their first honeymoon to create a bundle of confusion. It continues when Grant and Patrick arrive home and Dunne is there, posing as the daughter of an old friend of Grant's mother (Anne Shoemaker). Grant discovers that his missing wife wasn't quite so alone on her island stay, with the handsome Randolph Scott present as a man whom she nicknamed "Adam" to her "Eve".
This is both combination of family and screwball romantic comedy as the desire to reunite the family torn apart by no fault of their own, and it is brilliantly written and acted. You can tell when Patrick breaks down crying that those are indeed crocodile tears as she is way too tough (both in her character and in our memory of her previous screen performances) to be willing to break down so easily. Character performances by Donald MacBride as a befuddled hotel clerk and Granville Bates as a befuddled judge add to the delight of this story. Dunne and Grant are an easy-going romantic team who in three films had the sophistication and wit of Powell and Loy, Tracy and Hepburn, and Lombard and Gable. How I wish they had done more!
Those who have seen this film's Doris Day/James Garner remake ("Move Over Darling") first will have little trouble recognizing the same structure which only changes at the end. The story opens with Grant in court going through the legal procedure of having the long-missing Dunne declared dead just so he can immediately marry the somewhat temperamental Patrick. Dunne shows up immediately afterwards, encountering her two children and mother-in-law, then heading off to the hotel where she and Grant initially spent their first honeymoon to create a bundle of confusion. It continues when Grant and Patrick arrive home and Dunne is there, posing as the daughter of an old friend of Grant's mother (Anne Shoemaker). Grant discovers that his missing wife wasn't quite so alone on her island stay, with the handsome Randolph Scott present as a man whom she nicknamed "Adam" to her "Eve".
This is both combination of family and screwball romantic comedy as the desire to reunite the family torn apart by no fault of their own, and it is brilliantly written and acted. You can tell when Patrick breaks down crying that those are indeed crocodile tears as she is way too tough (both in her character and in our memory of her previous screen performances) to be willing to break down so easily. Character performances by Donald MacBride as a befuddled hotel clerk and Granville Bates as a befuddled judge add to the delight of this story. Dunne and Grant are an easy-going romantic team who in three films had the sophistication and wit of Powell and Loy, Tracy and Hepburn, and Lombard and Gable. How I wish they had done more!