Rent The Constant Husband (1955)

Colourful comedy. - The Constant Husband review by Steve

Charming social comedy which once in motion achieves a kind of sublime, friction free state of entertainment. It draws upon the public persona of its big box office star Rex Harrison, who had a reputation as a womaniser. He plays an amnesiac who finds himself in Wales without memory, only to discover that his condition has resulted in six marriages and no divorces.

Harrison actually was eventually married six times and his philandering led to real tragedy. But this is a light comedy. They all want him back. The ballbusting lawyer (Margaret Leighton) hired to defend the bigamist, falls in love with him, as do the women on the jury. In a case of life imitating art, Rex began an affair with his co-star, Kay Kendall.

This might be overkill if it wasn't for the sublime touch of everyone involved, including Harrison, who is brilliant this kind of cheerfully ludicrous fluff. There's a genuinely funny script and an experienced comedy director in Sidney Gilliatt. The lovely Technicolor adds a little sweetness. Cecil Parker as the dismayed psychiatrist is just a bonus.

It's possible that in the era of #MeToo some will find this indulgence of the male ego a turn off. But watched in the spirit of the times there is one of the wittiest British scripts of the decade. And the cast squeezes all the laughs out of every line. This is is the comedy of manners made by experts; the kind of grown up frou-frou that Lubitsch used to make.