The Awful Truth

An American comedy built on a divorce. Jerry tells his wife he is in Florida and stays in the city. When he gets home Lucy is not there either; she has been out with her music teacher, their car broke down and they stayed out overnight. Neither believes the other. They decide to divorce. The court sets ninety days before the decree becomes final, and custody of the dog becomes a matter of argument. Those ninety days are the film. Lucy starts seeing someone else: a wealthy and thoroughly dull man from Oklahoma. Jerry does everything he can to break it up and always appears to be passing by. Then Jerry becomes engaged and this time Lucy takes the stage. In the best section she turns up in front of his intended family introducing herself as his sister. The method is close to improvisation. The director built part of the scenes on the day of shooting and gave the actors no written text; the hesitations on screen are real for that reason. Cary Grant plays Jerry, Irene Dunne plays Lucy and Ralph Bellamy the man from Oklahoma. Leo McCarey directed and won the Academy Award for best director for it. One of the founding examples of its kind for anyone who likes classic Hollywood comedy. For a viewer expecting the pace of today, the film rests on the rhythm of talk and its plot is very simple.