Rating: 5/5
Jerry (Cary Grant) lied and said he went to Florida for 2 weeks, but he doesn’t have a tan, so he gets a fake one at the health club
The road to Reno is paved with suspicions
Wife Lucy (Irene Dunne) has been running around with Armand (Alexander D’Arcy), and Jerry masks his suspicions poorly. Armand is Lucy’s voice teacher, but Jerry lays into them
You can't give up on faith in marriage — if you lose that, you've lost everything
The two begin divorce proceedings, with 90 days to contest. Of course, Lucy may still be in love with Jerry
Irene Dunne is so damn funny — her timing is always just right, and her eyes telling a hundred stories in every reaction — even when she was in the corner of the shot, I’d look for her response
Cary Grant gets the most laughs out of his pratfalls and handsome, demeaning smirks — his performance is only diminished by playing against Irene Dunne. Also, this is the film that established the “Cary Grant” persona that every director would ask for afterward
Skippy plays their dog Mr. Smith, and he’s perfect! Eddie from Fraiser plays a similar role
The direction allows them to laugh at each other — more when the other flails physically than with jokes. Leo McCarey loves spontaneity above all else so several scenes were improvised or written on the spot — Cary Grant tried to get out of the movie because McCarey threw the script away and said they would, “have fun.” In addition, they would do as few takes as possible to keep the energy up
A perfect romantic comedy — perhaps not the originator, but the archetype for the screwball comedy— combining witty repartee with sharp physical comedy is rarely done as well as it is here — to make a comedy that is still just as funny 90 years later is nothing short of a miracle