Thursday 16 February 2023

The Awful Truth

a film by Leo McCarey

Why on earth would anybody want to watch the upper-class divorce comedy, especially during the Great Depression? Well, according to Wikipedia, director Leo McCarey “felt audiences would enjoy seeing a picture about rich people having troubles”. With that lame excuse, dozens of awful movies must have been spawned in Depression-stricken Hollywood. The 1937 film was not even the original — it was preceded by two Awful Truths already. Yet McCarey’s version, starring Irene Dunne and Cary Grant (to say nothing of Skippy the dog) and to a great degree improvised on the set, turned out to be an accidental masterpiece.

I have to add that neither the English title (rather uncovincingly explained in the 1925 silent film) nor the Spanish La pícara puritana make any sense to me.

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