utgard14 Cary Grant is trapped in a loveless marriage with viper Kay Francis, who only wants him for his money and status. He meets and falls in love with pretty artist Carole Lombard. He asks Kay for a divorce and she eventually agrees. But it's soon obvious she has no intention of letting him go and will do whatever it takes to keep her sham marriage intact. Grant and Lombard are both great. Kay Francis is excellent as the venomous wife. Helen Vinson plays her bitchy friend. Charles Coburn is disappointingly cast in a serious part as Cary's stuffy father. Enjoyable soaper with a good cast that should please even those who normally don't love these types of films.

jjnxn-1 Considering the three main stars a curiously obscure drama from the legendary year of 1939. Superior soap opera contains some of the best work Cary Grant, Carole Lombard and Kay Francis ever put on film. Carole shows that she wasn't just a superb comedienne but a skilled dramatic actress. Cary is just right in blending the facile with the seriousness of the untenable situation he finds himself in. As good as both of them are, and they are great, even better is Kay Francis, a portrait in silky malevolence. This was inexplicably almost the end of her film career, she ended up in Poverty Row junk only a few years later and after watching this it's hard to understand how this didn't open up a whole new chapter for her as the wicked woman of cinema. Perhaps she was just too early for noir, she would have been perfect as a poison pit viper in many of those pictures.

blanche-2 Here's how I know a film is good: I was supposed to be doing something but I started watching "In Name Only." I said, well, I'll watch fifteen minutes (I had it on my DV-R). Ended up watching the whole thing.Cary Grant plays the unhappily married Alec Walker, and Kaye Francis is his wife Maida. It's a loveless marriage, though she claims otherwise. In fact, Alec has proof that Maida only loved one man, but rejected him because he didn't have any money. Maida's all about money and social standing.One day Alec runs into Julie Eden, a beautiful young widow, and the two strike up a friendship. Julie thinks it might be going somewhere until the night that Alec is in a car accident while driving home a friend of his wife's (who wants to have an affair with Alec). Julie finds out Alec is married and tells him she can't even be friends with him because it won't stay that way. Alec asks his wife for a divorce. She agrees, but she won't file in the states. She will do it discreetly, in Paris. Alec's parents, thinking it's just a vacation, accompany her. Guess what. It is just a vacation because somehow Maida doesn't get the divorce. And she doesn't intend to.The actors are all perfect in their roles, including Charles Coburn as Alec's mother and Nella Walker as his mother, both of whom love Maida and disapprove of Alec's interest in another woman. Grant and Lombard are beautiful together. Both were known for their excellent comic acting and timing, but drama came just as easily to both of them. Francis is the perfect patronizing wife, pretending martyrdom as she supposedly suffers in silence.Very absorbing and well worth seeing.

james higgins 75/100. When in the cast you have Cary Grant, Carole Lombard and Kay Francis, you know you are in for a treat, and indeed, In Name Only is just that. Surprisingly, Kay Francis outshines the top billed performers. She gives a very fine performance. Helen Vinson is memorable as one of Francis' catty friends. Good art direction, the costumes are quite well done. This is one of Peggy Ann Garner's earliest roles as Lombard's daughter. She is such a natural actress. Well written and a bit of a tearjerker, but it showcases Lombard's versatility in her ability to play dramatic roles as well as the comic roles she is best known for. John Cromwell's careful direction pulls it all together.