Thomas Drufke
There's something so charming about 1930's screwball comedies. Innocent, energetic, and gracefully acted all around, The Awful Truth is a great showcase of Cary Grant and Irene Dunne's chemistry while presenting a bittersweet love story along the way.One of my favorite films of all time is Bringing Up Baby, which is famously a screw ball comedy. And I think Cary Grant's best performance is in Penny Serenade, where he shares the screen with Irene Dunne. So take the screwball tone of Bringing Up Baby and the duo of Penny Serenade and you have The Awful Truth. Luckily, it does not disappoint.The 30's was a much more innocent time for Hollywood filmmaking. Directors hadn't really dug deep into the more somber overtones of the 40's, and I think this contributed to The Awful Truth's charm. Even with that said, it's not a complete romp. In fact, the dramatic elements of Grant and Dunne's incoming divorce gave the film a dramatic end you don't want to reach. As you watch their character's attempt to tear each other's relationship's apart, you increasingly hope for a happy resolution to this bittersweet story.Just like Bringing Up Baby, The Awful Truth has its ridiculous gags and laugh out loud moments. To me, a comedy's ultimate test is how well it holds up over time. If a film that's turning 75 years old next year can still pull laughs out of a 22-year-old single guy, I think it's done its job. It's full of ideas ahead of its time, chemistry for days, and brilliantly timed comedic gags. You can't really ask for anything else out of a comedy.+Grant & Dunne+Mature but widespread appeal humor+Pleasantly charming8.4/10
Tad Pole
So says Oklahoman oil man\rancher Dan Leeson (Ralph Bellamy) when he finally manages to give his Eastern dream girl Lucy (Irene Dunne) a peck on her cheek. Apart from the intriguing question of how many steaks Dan would wolf down if he actually got to, say, second or third base with Lucy, one sort of wonders why an hour and a half story about a "divorce" that seemed bogus and poorly motivated from Day One could earn five Oscar nominations. True, it's funny in spots. True, Cary Grant (as Lucy's "estranged" hubby Jerry) and Miss Dunne were fairly popular in the 1930s. Still, it seems this pair should have been able to ad-lib most of what's on-screen here, with little need for direction. This raises the question of WHY Academy voters diverted the best director Oscar from the helmsman of 1937's official "Best Picture" (William Dieterle, for his valiant attempt to save French Jews from the threat of Hitler with THE LIFE OF EMILE ZOLA) to Leo McCarey for THE AWFUL TRUTH. The awful truth is that Oscar voting always has been 10% thoughtful, 90% a whimsical popularity contest, in which non-Americans and Un-Americans join American One-Percenters to comprise a skewed electorate. As baseball learned years ago in All-Star balloting, it's even more urgent that the Academy gives the People the vote for the 12 main categories. (If the Academy does the nominations, this won't be some sort of People's Choice Awards with a Jackass flick being voted on--oops, THAT'S what the Academy itself is doing this year!) Give the People the Vote!
AaronCapenBanner
Leo McCarey directs this screwball marital comedy that stars Cary Grant and Irene Dunne as a divorcing couple who secretly still love each other, so try desperately to thwart the other's romance: He to a "haughty" socialite(Molly Lamont), she to a "country bumpkin" oil magnate(Ralph Bellamy) He comes up with a scheme to visit their dog Mr. Smith, she tries to convince his fiancée that she is his scandalous sister. Guess what happens next. Oddly unappealing comedy has some laughs, but two obnoxious lead characters that aren't as wonderful as they think they are; stacks the deck by making their rivals look bad, which was grossly unfair. They really didn't seem that awful to me.
GManfred
May be the best 'screwball comedy' of them all. Grant and Dunne are perfect, and they have perfect support from Ralph Bellamy and Cecil Cunningham.It's all been said in other reviews, so here are just a few observations;*Important to note that this was possibly the first of the so-called 'screwball comedies' which were so popular in the 30's and early 40's. I think this the best of a genre which can easily veer off into tedium ("You Can't Take It With You").*As noted by another reviewer, Irene Dunne's style was copied by Katharine Hepburn, instead of vice versa. For my money, Irene Dunne was a better all-around actress.*As mentioned, here is another instance of Ralph Bellamy playing the also-ran boyfriend. He seemed to make a career out of this type of role and here gets an AA nom for his work.*There are so many funny scenes in this picture and I think it's a tribute to the comedic genius of Leo McCarey, who started out as a director of silent comedy shorts, including some Laurel and Hardys.
AD
