The Awful Truth (1937)
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The Awful Truth Movie Review
The Awful Truth is a 1937 screwball comedy film directed by Leo McCarey and starring Cary Grant and Irene Dunne. It’s one of the essential 1937 as well as screwball comedy classics.
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“Yes, tell her I’d love to meet her.
Tell her to wear boxing gloves“
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The two actors play a couple who are soon going to be divorced, but both go to great lengths to stop each other’s romantic pursuits. This is a rare breed of a movie where I knew what’s going to happen as the story is obviously predictable, but I still ended up adoring it to pieces which is why I didn’t hold its predictable nature to its fault as it’s absolutely perfect regardless which I am well aware now after my second viewing.
The plot moves smoothly and the film is thus highly entertaining and perfect in each every scene with not a single wasted or rushed moment to be had. Like all the best movies out there, The Awful Truth benefits from superb direction, this time from Leo McCarey who undoubtedly deserved his directing Oscar as he directed the hell out of it. It’s his magnum opus for sure.
Ralph Bellamy is fun and endearing as this redneck goof, Alexander D’Arcy is also quite amusing and Cecil Cunningham is very good as Aunt Patsy. But despite those very solid supporting characters, this is almost entirely a two-person show between Cary Grant and Irene Dunne. Both of their characters are so beautifully written and I felt that I had just met them.
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Irene Dunne had rarely been better than here. She’s charming, but also very playful and goofy when the script demands it. I absolutely adored the focus on both of them and how he first tried to stop her romance and then it’s switched and she also got to be proactive. It’s another proof how strong women were in 30s films.
Cary Grant also gave one of his best performances here which really says a lot as the man was in a plethora of classic movies playing classic characters. At first, he played the shenanigans so superbly and was very funny, but later on he was still very funny, but at amusing facial expressions. Both of them sold each and every scene which is why this movie ended up being such a comedy classic. And their relationship I bought from the get-go and I rooted for them to get back together. I was so invested because this is one of cinema’s most wonderful and hugely entertaining, charming couples.
The humor is so great here. My favorite scenes are the car scene, that cleverly constructed ending, Lucy playing Jerry’s sister and of course Jerry trying to break her romance up. But I also have to compliment the dog. Yes, Mr. Smith is one of cinema’s cutest, most memorable dogs as he genuinely had a role in this movie with the hat scene being particularly well realized. I loved how the dog knew so many tricks and he was simply adorable.
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The dialogue is as quick and as sophisticated as you’d come to expect from this subgenre. The Awful Truth also features a very good score with a good use of some songs while it’s also quite memorable in costumes and in interiors. It truly is the best film of 1937 right after ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’. And it’s also one of my absolute favorite screwball comedies, probably the best one after ‘My Man Godfrey’.
The mix of expectedly playful, quick, sophisticated dialogue and many memorable, very amusing situations led to The Awful Truth being such a comedy classic that it is and one of the funniest and most charming films from the 30s. The direction from Leo McCarey deservedly received an Oscar whereas Irene Dunne and Cary Grant gave two of their finest performances and created one of cinema’s best, most amusing couples. It’s a hilarious, perfectly executed film that is undoubtedly one of the essential screwball comedies.
