My Favorite Wife Synopsis: Seven years after a shipwreck in which she was presumed dead, Ellen Arden arrives home to find that her husband Nick has just remarried.
On the day Nick has his wife, Ellen, declared legally dead, he marries Bianca. To his shock, on his honeymoon, Ellen reappears, having been shipwrecked for seven years. Nick has difficulty admitting the truth to Bianca, despite his heart still belonging to his first wife.
Despite having never heard of My Favorite Wife before finding it on a streaming site, I found it pretty entertaining. I’ve already seen quite a few comedies starring Cary Grant, and I find him to be a talented, charismatic leading man (shocker, right?). I don’t think I’ve ever seen an Irene Dunne film before, but she was a joy to watch in this.
I loved Dunne’s snappy delivery of her lines, and her banter with Grant was humorous enough, even if I wasn’t completely on board with their romantic chemistry. And there isn’t much to the story’s premise. It’s evident that Nick still loves Ellen when she returns.
Bianca, played by Gail Patrick, isn’t much competition at all. She’s very pretty, but lacks personality, and she doesn’t connect with Nick and Ellen’s children whatsoever. Most of the movie is Nick attempting to tell Bianca of Ellen’s return but getting interrupted by various shenanigans. Add in another rival for Ellen’s love, and somehow, they stretched this premise into an 88-minute film!
So yes, I did enjoy the performances, and I found the dialogue to be witty and entertaining, but as a whole, My Favorite Wife was a bit of a letdown after having watched some of Grant’s other films (His Girl Friday, Bringing Up Baby). There is something about the plot itself that didn’t grab me, and I don’t believe that Cary Grant and Irene Dunne had the kind of chemistry necessary to make me all that invested in the outcome of their situation. Still, watching these older films is a rather cozy experience, so I do recommend giving it a watch.
My Favorite Wife was a hit in 1940, and remade in 1963 as Move Over, Darling, with Doris Day and James Garner. I may watch that as well and see how it compares.
Watched: 09/14/2023
Notable Song:
