Greenes Please don't spend money on this.

GazerRise Fantastic!

Livestonth I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

Paynbob It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

weezeralfalfa A typical, but not especially good, Cary Grant screwball romantic comedy. Costars Grant and Irene Dunne had costarred in the previous rather similar comedy "The Awful Truth", which generally gets better reviews, but definitely not by me. The next year, they costarred in their final film together: "Penny Serenade", which I have seen, and is quite different in tone from the present film, being a sentimental tear jerker.We have an unbelievable coincidence to begin the film. Grant(as Nick) and Gale Patrick(as Bianca)are before a judge, to be married, then spend their honeymoon in the mountains. Meanwhile, Grant's first wife , missing for 7 years, and presumed drowned, after her ship sank, shows up at her home, unannounced . She greets her children, playing in the yard, but doesn't tell them who she is. However, her mother-in-law, inside, does recognize her, but doesn't tell the children, who don't find out until near the end of the film. She is told about Nick's just completed marriage ceremony (no guests, apparently), and takes a plane to the mountain hotel.Incidentally, 7 years is a common length of time until a missing person is declared legally dead. Thus, it's not clear whether Ellen has been declared legally dead. If not, Nick would have to go through a formal divorce before he could remarry. In either case, he should not still be legally married to his first wife. He just has to make up his mind whether he wants the new marriage annulled, and remarry his first wife. Apparently, this is what he wants, but is afraid to tell Bianca. This forms the basis of most of the comedy.There are many gaping plausibility holes in the screenplay. But that's not unusual for this type of comedy, if you are willing to forget about this. For example, why wasn't Ellen's rescue communicated to Nick by telegraph or telephone long before she arrived, unannounced at her home. Why did she arrive, after 7 years, exactly on his wedding day. The behavior of Nick and Ellen is mostly strange throughout most of the film. Why did they put off telling significant others about the situation as long as possible, which gives rise to most of the comedy.Poor Randolph Scott, as Burkett) is also caught up in this marital mess. He was on the deserted island with Ellen for the full 7 years, as he was also on that ship that sank. Nick finds out about him from a life insurance agent. Nick is very upset, and goes looking for him. He finds him at a swimming pool. As Nick feared, he is tall,, ruggedly handsome and is showing off his diving prowess to the ladies present. Nick doesn't confront him, but probably wonders if he didn't save Ellen from drowning, hence helping to cement a relationship during those 7 years? Meanwhile Ellen has found a short balding man to pose as Burkett, hoping to reduce Nick's fear that they had a sexual relationship. Later, the real Burkett appears and skirts around the question of whether he and Ellen were lovers. Nick obviously can't believe they weren't. But the film censorship board presumably demanded that they didn't. Surely, their clothes would have soon fallen apart, and they would have had to improvise, or go naked. The fact that they called each other Adam and Eve would prejudice us toward assuming the latter possibility. Several times, Burkett says he would like to marry Ellen and return to that island, where they could live in peace. But Ellen disagrees. After all, she has 2 children at home. In the last part, Bianca storms out of the courtroom and disappears. Ellen is cool toward both Nick and Burkett. Nick drives away from their home, but soon returns and tries to plead with Ellen to make up. He has to sleep in the attic, but instead comes down in a Santa costume. Ellen gives in.Unlike some reviewers, I didn't feel there was a gap in humor. I thought it was spread around pretty uniformly. I would guess this film would be most appreciated by women and older children.

wes-connors Handsome widower Cary Grant (as Nick Arden) has his spouse, shipwrecked off the coast of Indochina seven years ago, declared legally dead so he can marry an attractive brunette he met while helping with the search. The newlyweds are honeymooning when Mr. Grant's wife, still beautiful Irene Dunne (as Ellen Wagstaff), returns home. It turns out Ms. Dunne had survived on a deserted island. She expects to pick up where she left off with Grant and their two cute kids. Grant's new wife, pretty Gail Patrick (as Bianca Bates) is anxious to put their marriage to bed. Things get more complicated when hunky Randolph Scott (as Stephen Burkett) arrives on the scene. He was stranded with Dunne for seven years on the island...The castaways called themselves "Adam and Eve"...This was one of two attempts to turn the melodramatic Alfred Lord Tennyson poem "Enoch Arden" into a 1940 comedy movie. More successful than "Too Many Husbands" (1940), "My Favorite Wife" reverses the gender of the original characters and leaves viewers with the possibility that no extra-marital sex occurred. The formula was repeated for Doris Day in "Move Over, Darling" (1963). Which wife fits the "My Favorite Wife" title is never in doubt. Note, for example how the women are introduced – Dunne is sweet and motherly while Ms. Patrick is primping and self-absorbed. Safe and obvious, the story engages with performances and innuendo. Leo McCarey and the RKO studio crew make it a smooth, classy production.******* My Favorite Wife (5/2/40) Garson Kanin ~ Irene Dunne, Cary Grant, Gail Patrick, Randolph Scott

dougdoepke Too many wives for one husband seems to be the problem for Nick (Grant). How did he get into the mess in the first place. Maybe if wife Ellen (Dunne) had stayed dead, he could retire with new wife Bianca (Patrick). But no, of all times, Ellen turns up alive on his wedding night to Bianca. Oh my, how will this straighten out. Worse, Bianca is having a very lonely honeymoon. At the same time, muscle-bound Burkett (Scott) turns up as Adam to Ellen's Eve after their seven years together on a lonely island. Now what's Nick going to do. Will the screenwriters be able to figure it all out.Great comedy premise that doesn't need madcap to heighten the effect. Grant and Dunne are in fine comedic form. But truth be told it's that looney judge (Bates) who steals the show in a uniquely addled performance. In his law book, legalities are just bothersome details. No wonder things are in such a mess. My only complaint is that the reconciliation phase goes on a little too long, somewhat dragging out that part. Nonetheless, it is hard having to sleep on a mattress that talks back, which hilariously leads up to that inspired last shot.Fortunately, this is the kind of movie that put the 'golden' in Hollywood's golden years.

zardoz-13 The romantic comedy "My Favorite Wife" is a consistently entertaining sex romp that carefully skirts vulgar material. Cary Grant bounces back and forth between two women. One of them used to be his wife while the other is his new wife. "Adam's Rib" director Garson Kanin and scenarists Bella & Sam Spewack with Leo McCarey had to tread carefully on their subject matter because the Production Code Administration condemned any movie that didn't treat marriage with respect. The amusing premise is that our protagonist, Nicholas Arden (Cary Grant), has just had his first wife declared legally dead in court. Arden's first wife, Ellen Wagstaff Arden (Irene Dunne) vanished somewhere in Indochina when her ship sank. She had just given birth to two children, a boy and a girl, and had gone off on an anthropological expedition when her ship went down. Nicholas traveled to Bangkok to interview everybody who had anything to do with the shipwreck, but he wasn't able to find his wife. Seven years have elapsed, and Nicholas is planning to remarry to Bianca (Gail Patrick) after the court declares that Ellen is legally dead. Unbeknownst to Nicholas, Ellen survived the shipwreck and spent those seven years on an island. No sooner has Nicholas married Bianca than Ellen comes home. It seems that a Portuguese freighter wandered off course by 200 miles and found Ellen. When she arrives at her old home, she finds the two children that she had only known as infants when she left them. Little Timmy and Chinch tell their mother that their mother drown at sea. When she tries to get more details out of them, they inform her that they aren't allowed to speak to strangers. Ellen slips into the house and surprises her mother. Ellen's mom explains that Nicholas and Bianca have left to celebrate their honeymoon. Morever, they are celebrating it at the same hotel that Nicholas and Ellen celebrated their honeymoon. Ellen hops on a plane and arrives ahead of them at the hotel. When Nicholas and Bianca show up, Nicholas refuses to take Suite A because Ellen and he spent the night there on their honeymoon. They have just gotten aboard the elevator when Nicholas spots Ellen in the lobby. At this point, our hero is not allowed to consummate his marriage to Bianca. Naturally, he is shocked by Ellen's appearance and she explains that she survived and has come home. She realizes the predicament that Nicholas is in and prompts him to tell Bianca about her. Poor Nicholas is caught between a rock and a hard place. Although he is an attorney, Nicholas finds himself tongue-tied by his situation. Clearly, since Ellen is not really dead, Nicholas cannot climb into bed with his second wife. Meanwhile, Bianca is considerably upset because Nicholas keeps running out on her. Adding to their woes is a suspicious hotel clerk (Donald McBride) who watches as Nicholas picks out Suite A for them. Immediately, the clerk suspects that Nicholas is determined to destroy the sterling reputation for honesty and decency that the hotel has maintained for 33 years. After the first forty minutes, "My Favorite Wife" takes a dramatic turn when Nicholas discovers that Ellen spent those seven years on that island with another man, Stephen Burkett (Randolph Scott), who happens to be a physical specimen of muscular perfection. Indeed, one of the women at pool side at the hotel where Burkett is staying asks Nicholas if Stephen is Tarzan actor Johnny Weissmuller.