Photos Top cast Edit. Esther Dale Mrs. Leeson as Mrs. Robert Warwick Mr. Vance as Mr. Mary Forbes Mrs. Vance as Mrs. Asta Mr. Smith as Mr. Smith uncredited. Wyn Cahoon Mrs. Barnsley as Mrs. Barnsley uncredited. Kathryn Curry Celeste as Celeste uncredited. Leo McCarey.
More like this. Watch options. Storyline Edit. Before their divorce becomes final, Jerry and Lucy Warriner both do their best to ruin each other's plans for remarriage, Jerry to haughty socialite Barbara Vance, she to oil-rich bumpkin Daniel Leeson.
Among their strategies: Jerry's court-decreed visitation rights with Mr. Smith, their pet fox terrier, and Lucy doing her most flamboyant Dixie Belle Lee impersonation as Jerry's brassy "sister" before his prospective bride's scandalized family. A classic screwball comedy, a memorable night's entertainment. Did you know Edit. Trivia Irene Dunne later recalled the scene where she pretends to be Cary Grant 's ill-bred nightclub performer sister, which was written over a weekend and handed to her on the morning she was scheduled to film it.
She was supposed to do a burlesque bump in the middle of her musical number, a move she was never able to do. Leo McCarey told her to just say, "Never could do that" when she got to that moment. She did, it stayed in the film, and Dunne found it "a choice comic bit.
Quotes Armand Duvalle : I am a great teacher, not a great lover. User reviews Review. Top review. Every moment pure gold They really don't make 'em like this any more. I mean, really. Sure, dialog in films since the '60s, and certainly the '70s, has tended to become more naturalistic and the acting less stylized and 'stagey' than in the old days, but somewhere along the way, amidst all the gains in technology and sometimes realism, we lost something.
One of the things we lost, I think, was the ability to write, direct, and act pieces such as this. I don't know exactly why this is so but, excellent as many of Hollywood's current actors are, I am not sure that something like this could be pulled off as well today. For one, I think that today's writers and directors, even some of the better ones, tend to cater to a greater degree to the lowest common denominator; compounding that, I'd assert that even with advances in educational resources, technology, and the fabric of society civil rights, etc, though like these others such facets of American society have been greatly eroded of late , the lowest common denominator today is lower than it was in Regardless, this film is a gem from start to finish, in every way.
Even the dog, that weird-looking little beast that shows up again in "Bringing Up Baby," is a sterling actor; indeed, he's better in his role and more convincing a thespian than many of today's so-called stars. The writing is incredible. Like the way the film's structured, the dialog is clever I understand that much of it was improvised, testament to the quality of actors involved working with an already great script and the themes and situations are ones that transcend time, no matter how long ago the '30s might seem to most of us.
It's madcap but it's not too much, and there are many points during which I think the filmmakers were pushing the boundaries to see just how far they could go in that heavily-restricted age of film. Obscene or vulgar language and the like can be funny in the right context or, obviously, reinforce or suggest other emotions but there may be some truth also in that old saying to the effect that yelling obscenities, or just pouring them forth as part of normal dialog, indicates a lack of anything more erudite to say.
In there, I think, you also find part of the key to what made this older comedies so perfect and so timeless; innuendo, no matter how obscure even if it goes over many heads is almost always far more interesting and humorous than a full-frontal attack on the senses. Of course, the makers of these old films had little choice but sometimes out of necessity comes a level of genius and craftsmanship that surpasses by far what might have been the more unfettered route to telling the story.
Have I mentioned that the dialog is great? Check this example out: Lucy : Well, I mean, if you didn't feel that way you do, things wouldn't be the way they are, would they? I mean, things could be the same if things were different. Claud Allister Lord Fabian. Zita Moulton Lady Fabian. Scott Colton Mr. Wyn Cahoon Mrs. Paul Stanton Judge. Leonard Carey Butler. Byron Foulger Secretary. Bess Flowers Viola Heath. Edgar Dearing Motor cop. Mitchell Harris Jerry's attorney. Miki Morita Japanese servant.
George Pearce Caretaker. Frank Wilson Master of ceremonies. Vernon Dent Police sergeant. Bobby Watson Hotel clerk. Kathryn Curry Celeste. Edward Peil Sr. John Tyrell Hank. Edmund Mortimer Lucy's attorney. Lee Willard. Arthur Stuart Hall.
Bruce Sidney. Frances Raymond. Ruth Cherrington. Dora Clement. Lionel Banks Art Director. Ed Bernds Sound Engineer. Al Clark Film Editor. Milton Drake Composer. Stephen Goosson Art Director. Babs Johnstone Interior Decorator. Kalloch Gowns. Leo Mccarey Company. William Mull Assistant Director. Ben Oakland Music Composition. Ben Oakland Composer. Everett Riskin Associate Producer.
Morris Stoloff Music Director. Dwight Taylor Contr to Screenplay const. Joseph Walker Photography. Photo Collections. One-sheets measured 27x41 inches, and were the poster style most commonly used in theaters. Intro Aired: May Intro Aired: Jan Intro Aired: Feb Intro Aired: Apr Award Wins.
Best Director Award Nominations. Best Actress Best Editing Best Picture Best Supporting Actor Best Writing, Screenplay The wire-haired terrier playing the Warriner's dog, Mr. Atlas credited as Skippy in Topper Takes a Trip While parodying her husband's nightclub singer girlfriend doing the song "My Dreams Are Gone with the Wind," Irene Dunne does a few seconds of the shuffle dance step she performed in Showboat In his comedy Part Time Wife , McCarey had a scene in which a lawyer is telling his client how wonderful marriage is while the lawyer's wife storms in and tells him in a very surly way, "Your dinner's getting cold.
The last scene of Grant and Dunne's follow-up film, My Favorite Wife , produced and with a story by Leo McCarey, mirrors the final scene of this movie.
Dunne lies comfortably in bed teasing Grant with the thought of sleeping with her but holding him at bay by telling him they have to wait 60 days until his other marriage is annulled. In an earlier romantic comedy, Mitchell Leisen's Hands Across the Table , Fred MacMurray also has to resort to a fake suntan to pull off a lie to his sweetheart.
The earlier movie was written in part by Vina Delmar. Ads for Grant's later comedy His Girl Friday made reference to this picture: "The Awful Truth didn't tell half of what you gals can do to a guy! He was set to direct it, too, but a bad auto accident put him out of commission and Garson Kanin stepped in. In spite of their frequent collaboration, McCarey maintained some bitterness all his life toward Grant.
Some have said it was because Grant never acknowledged McCarey's influence on his career and on the creation of the "Cary Grant" image. From on, he was able to produce all but one of his own movies for the rest of his career.
The son of one of California's best-known boxing promoters, McCarey took a turn at law on his father's wishes but found himself most at home in motion pictures. He started out as third assistant director to Tod Browning, who later directed Dracula , Freaks , and a number of Lon Chaney pictures. McCarey then moved on to the Hal Roach studios. When sound came in, it was difficult for many silent directors to get work since producers often thought they were not capable of handling dialogue. But McCarey was given the chance to direct his first sound feature, The Sophomore , by fellow Irish-Catholic Joseph Kennedy, father of the future president.
Mary's , found him "a terribly funny man He was a very easy-going man. There can't be any doubts in marriage LUCY: I've seen your picture in the paper and wondered what you looked like. LUCY: Why, is it doing anything besides falling? No one could ever accuse you of being a great lover. LUCY: I told him the truth, and strangely enough, he believed me.
LUCY: You're all confused, aren't you? LUCY: No. JERRY: Well you should be, because you're wrong about things being different because they're not the same. Things are different except in a different way.
You're still the same, only I've been a fool LUCY: Oh. Compiled by Rob Nixon. The movie performed so poorly studio chief Adolph Zukor dropped McCarey's contract, forcing the director to began negotiations with Columbia. But neither knew the other was in talks with Columbia until the studio signed Grant and decided to pair him with Dunne under McCarey's direction. They handed McCarey a script based on a play about divorce that had been filmed twice before.
He found it uninspiring, tore it up, and contacted Vina Delmar, who was credited with writing the script for Make Way for Tomorrow. They began work on a new script, sitting in McCarey's car on Hollywood Boulevard working out ideas.
Ralph Bellamy was cast as the Oklahoma oilman who attempts to woo Dunne after her separation from Grant, a role that was originally written as an Englishman for Roland Young who McCarey had directed in Ruggles of Red Gap, According to Bellamy a number of other writers, including Dorothy Parker and Dwight Taylor, took turns at trying to turn the Englishman into a particular type of American dullard. McCarey told Peter Bogdanovich years later that much of what ended up in the movie was based on his own life, particularly experiences with his wife, although he was quick to point out that the infidelity was imaginary and not autobiographical.
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