Thomas Drufke There's something so charming about 1930's screwball comedies. Innocent, energetic, and gracefully acted all around, The Awful Truth is a great showcase of Cary Grant and Irene Dunne's chemistry while presenting a bittersweet love story along the way.One of my favorite films of all time is Bringing Up Baby, which is famously a screw ball comedy. And I think Cary Grant's best performance is in Penny Serenade, where he shares the screen with Irene Dunne. So take the screwball tone of Bringing Up Baby and the duo of Penny Serenade and you have The Awful Truth. Luckily, it does not disappoint.The 30's was a much more innocent time for Hollywood filmmaking. Directors hadn't really dug deep into the more somber overtones of the 40's, and I think this contributed to The Awful Truth's charm. Even with that said, it's not a complete romp. In fact, the dramatic elements of Grant and Dunne's incoming divorce gave the film a dramatic end you don't want to reach. As you watch their character's attempt to tear each other's relationship's apart, you increasingly hope for a happy resolution to this bittersweet story.Just like Bringing Up Baby, The Awful Truth has its ridiculous gags and laugh out loud moments. To me, a comedy's ultimate test is how well it holds up over time. If a film that's turning 75 years old next year can still pull laughs out of a 22-year-old single guy, I think it's done its job. It's full of ideas ahead of its time, chemistry for days, and brilliantly timed comedic gags. You can't really ask for anything else out of a comedy.+Grant & Dunne+Mature but widespread appeal humor+Pleasantly charming8.4/10

classicsoncall This movie reminded me of another Cary Grant-Irene Dunne team-up that came out a few years later, "My Favorite Wife". The situation between the principals was of a similar nature, and the supporting players in that movie sort of paralleled the ones here. For my money, I'd have to give the edge to this one, I thought it was a funnier film, with Irene Dunne's inspired performance as being the deciding factor.Director Leo McCarey is to be commended for encouraging his players to ad lib as much as possible during the shooting of the picture, much to the consternation of Grant, who was used to a more structured approach to film making. He was one of those actors who memorized his lines and got flustered with any deviation from the script. But things worked out once Grant got in the spirit of things and offered his own bit of improvisation. That chair flip at the DuValle's (Alexander D'Arcy) was a classic bit of tom foolery, and landed him in a most unusual position.For sheer lunacy, Lucy Warriner's (Dunne) impersonation of her husband's phony sister was the best, along with that 'Gone With the Wind' number which was a hoot and a half. How Lucy could have been attracted to a cornball guy like Dan Leeson (Ralph Bellamy) given her personality was a bit of a stretch, but no more so than Jerry (Grant) going for good old Dixie Belle (Joyce Compton). Those two rebounds would have been better taken on a basketball court.If you're in the mood for screwball comedy you can't go wrong with this one. It seems Grant and Dunne were naturals for this sort of pairing since they teamed up a handful of times in other films. Which makes me wonder why Grant, who was married five times, never hooked up with Irene Dunne for real considering their wonderful on screen chemistry.

SnoopyStyle Jerry Warriner (Cary Grant) returns home from a trip but he lies about it being to Florida. His wife Lucy (Irene Dunne) is nowhere to be found. She returns home with suave foreigner Armand Duvalle. Everybody is suspicious. He doesn't believe her car broke down and his Florida story doesn't hold up. They decide to get divorced. They fight over their dog Mr. Smith but she wins with a toy. She moves in with her Aunt Patsy and goes out with her neighbor oil-rich Oklahoma hick Dan Leeson. Dan's mother disapproves. Jerry ends up with socialite Barbara Vance. Jerry and Lucy constantly fight and can't seem to get over each other.Cary Grant and Irene Dunne are a fun couple. Their jabs are always sharp and utterly endearing. They are a cute couple and I rather like this rom-com premise. The start is a little clunky with the misunderstandings but it quickly falls into the classic formula. The thing is that this movie is one of those that created the formula. Grant and Dunne can't be any more lovable. The jokes are funny and this is a charming movie.

Tad Pole So says Oklahoman oil man\rancher Dan Leeson (Ralph Bellamy) when he finally manages to give his Eastern dream girl Lucy (Irene Dunne) a peck on her cheek. Apart from the intriguing question of how many steaks Dan would wolf down if he actually got to, say, second or third base with Lucy, one sort of wonders why an hour and a half story about a "divorce" that seemed bogus and poorly motivated from Day One could earn five Oscar nominations. True, it's funny in spots. True, Cary Grant (as Lucy's "estranged" hubby Jerry) and Miss Dunne were fairly popular in the 1930s. Still, it seems this pair should have been able to ad-lib most of what's on-screen here, with little need for direction. This raises the question of WHY Academy voters diverted the best director Oscar from the helmsman of 1937's official "Best Picture" (William Dieterle, for his valiant attempt to save French Jews from the threat of Hitler with THE LIFE OF EMILE ZOLA) to Leo McCarey for THE AWFUL TRUTH. The awful truth is that Oscar voting always has been 10% thoughtful, 90% a whimsical popularity contest, in which non-Americans and Un-Americans join American One-Percenters to comprise a skewed electorate. As baseball learned years ago in All-Star balloting, it's even more urgent that the Academy gives the People the vote for the 12 main categories. (If the Academy does the nominations, this won't be some sort of People's Choice Awards with a Jackass flick being voted on--oops, THAT'S what the Academy itself is doing this year!) Give the People the Vote!