MY FAVORITE WIFE (1940) B/W 88m dir: Garson Kanin

w/Irene Dunne, Cary Grant, Randolph Scott, Gail Patrick, Ann Shoemaker, Scotty Beckett, Mary Lou Harrington, Donald MacBride, Hugh O'Connell, Granville Bates

From The Movie Guide: "After Grant and Dunne made such a success of THE AWFUL TRUTH, they were reteamed for this up-to-date version of the 'Enoch Arden' story. Producer [Leo] McCarey was supposed to direct, but he had a terrible auto accident just before shooting, so Kanin was handed the task and came through with a fast-moving, often amusing film.

"You all know the story. Ellen (Dunne), shipwrecked for seven years, returns to discover that her husband Nick (Grant) has just had her declared legally dead and has married Bianca (Patrick). Ellen wants her man back and proceeds to make him jealous over Stephen (Scott), the man she was shipwrecked with all those years. Meanwhile, Bianca is getting mentally disturbed. Love will find a way.

"Lots of laughs for the first three-quarters of the film but then it peters out for the expected finale. A scene-stealing Bates [who plays the judge] helps out, though. Remade, not as well, as MOVE OVER, DARLING, which starred Doris Day and James Garner in the Dunne and Grant roles. [MOVE OVER, DARLING began its remake incarnation as SOMETHING'S GOT TO GIVE, the ultimately unfinished film Marilyn Monroe had been suspended from by 20th Century Fox at the time of her death in 1962. MM was, of course, playing the returning wife, with Dean Martin cast in the Grant role.]"

MY FAVORITE WIFE was nominated for three Oscars: Best Original Screenplay (McCarey, Bella Spewack), Score (Roy Webb), and Art Direction (Van Nest Polglase, Mark-Lee Kirk).