The Awful Truth (1937)

The Awful Truth

It's nice to be remembered there actually was a time when movies labeled 'comedy' could make you laugh, and The Awful Truth sure achieves laughter. What's more is the fact it's charming and sparkles with life as well, which is something you rarely see these days.

It won an Oscar for 'Best Director', while also being nominated for 'Best Picture', 'Best Lead Actress', Best Support Actor', 'Best Editing' and 'Best Writing Screenplay'. As I mentioned when reviewing Make Way for Tomorrow, director McCarey felt he won that Oscar for the wrong movie that year. While there's no doubt I agree with him, simply because that's still the best movie I've ever seen, there's neither no doubt 1937 was a great year for McCarey.

The chemistry between Irene Dunne and Cary Grant is excellent, and especially Dunne is brilliant. Also worth a mention is Cecil Cunningham's performance as Aunt Patsy and Asta as Mr. Smith, the latter being a dog.

There's a couple of scenes that doesn't quite work as well as they probably hoped, but most of them thankfully helps establishing the characters and their chemistry. Overall a delightful divorce, as I guess I might as well mention the plot with half a sentence at least.