Rent My Favourite Wife (1940)

Comedy Misfire. - My Favourite Wife review by Steve

Leo McCarey's 1937 classic The Awful Truth was a massive box office hit, so he revisited the formula with this unofficial follow up. It reunites Irene Dunne and Cary Grant as another separated couple who scheme to get back together. She has been shipwrecked on a remote island for seven years... and returns on her ex-husband's wedding day.

McCarey couldn't direct after a serious car crash. But he co-wrote and produced and his signature is all over this, particularly the long sentimental scenes with the cute kids, which will be a matter of personal taste. At least they don't sing. Unfortunately, lightning doesn't strike twice. The stars do their stuff, but this is a misfire.

It's usually labelled screwball, but is more like the comedy of propriety which dominated Hollywood in the '50s. The gags emerge from the couple failing to conform to expected standards. Minor characters are not eccentrics but a tutting chorus of disapproval. It feels like screwball has finally been asphyxiated by the Production Code

Gail Patrick is suitably antiseptic as the now unwanted new wife and Randolph Scott is a lot of fun as the himbo who was castaway with Irene. But there is meanness of spirit, and a lack of wit. The estranged couple contort idiotically in search of laughs, which rarely pay off. It's not a washout, but it is a disappointment.