Monday 11 August 2014

The Awful Truth (1937 Leo McCarey)

According to Peter Bogdanovich (in Who the Hell's in it?), the film that introduced the screwball version of Cary Grant that is so familiar, as he tries to divorce Irene Dunne.


Film features the then highest paid animal actor in Hollywood, Asta (actually 'Skippy'), and Ralph Bellamy who then aged 33 had already appeared in dozens of films and would continue to do so until his final performance in Pretty Woman aged 86.



It's pretty funny: written in the screwball style; Grant and Dunne amusing; good stuff with Asta and a bowler hat; cuckoo clock; Grant's dancer friend's dance. McCarey also directed Duck Soup and so it seems similar stylistically. Shot by Joseph Walker for Columbia and written by Viña Delmar, from Arthur Richman play.

Back to Bogdanovich, there's a great story on Hitchcock from McCarey in his directors' book:
I had the idea one day of making a film with him [Hitch] as an actor. I wanted to direct him in a horror film. We spent a lot of time together discussing it, but we never found a moment when we were both free. I wanted him to commit the perfect crime in the film. He was fascinated by the idea...

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