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Pretty Good

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Irene Dunne is wonderful in "The Awful Truth" an actress largely forgotten today I beg movie lovers to watch this movie (and others she has dunne-ha ha) and maybe together we can resurrect her formidable career! I don't waste time on plot, lets talk about the highlights in this achingly funny film: Irene being tickled by Cary, Irene being forced to dance with oaf Ralph Bellamy, Irene passing herself off as Cary's trashy sister and singing the mildly risqué song "My dreams have gone with The Wind". Irene Dunne was delightful, delectable, dynamite and most important durable. She lasts! She sang superbly, acted effortlessly and danced with precision and panache. One of AFI's 25 greatest female stars lets affirm her legacy and make her viable again! Here are some of her other films I have seen: "Show Boat", "Roberta", "My Favorite Wife", "Love Affair". Musical, comedy, drama, heck she even tackled westerns ("Cimarron"). C'mon people! Make the next film you watch an Irene Dunne vehicle! This is Daniel at the movies. Till we meet again don't know where don't know when.

In general, Cary Grant comedies are not my favorites, and this offering is thus far my least favorite. Even the later "My Favorite Wife", despite it's plot problems, was a pleasure to watch compared to this turkey.During parts of the film, costar Irene Dunn reminded me in hair style, speech and mannerisms of Katharine Hepburn, say in "Bringing Up Baby", released the following year. The humor in that Grant film was miles more effective. Not sure if the title is supposed to relate to the plot? Is the point that there was no awful truth to be discovered, thus wrongly leading to the divorce. Never understood why it was so important for Cary's character to lie about going to Florida? The hint is that he went to California. Why? This only relates to the rest of the film in providing some reason for Dunn's character to wonder about his fidelity, eventually leading to divorce.

Leo McCarey's The Awful Truth is a smart romantic comedy movie that is unlike any other comedy that I have ever seen before as well as being one of the best comedies ever made. McCarey's film tells the story of a couple (played by Cary Grant and Irene Dunne in an Oscar nominated performance) who is about to divorce each other with some complicated events (especially the scene where the Cary Grant and Irene Dunne characters are in the courtroom trying to find out who is going to take custody of their dog of which they call "Mr. Smith"). While watching the courtroom scene in this movie I thought of this movie as a satire to Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) because both films talk about divorce but both are different genres whereas Kramer vs. Kramer has the more emotional aspect of divorce and this film is just the opposite because both Jerry (Grant) and Lucy (Dunne) can't handle it without another, also while Lucy is still married she ends having a love affair with a man named Daniel Leeson (played by Ralph Bellamy in a performance that got him an Oscar nomination), but coincidentally Jerry also attempts to have a love affair with a woman named Barbara Vance (played by Molly Lamont), and here is the part of why both affairs end up being a total coincidence and that reasoning is because both affairs don't last too long. As Roger Ebert once said on his show with Gene Siskel "and so often in relationships who do you like? you like the people who like you." and that is just the case with this movie, and also it gives a very valuable life lesson for married couples and that is to never divorce from each other for the wrong reasons.

Leo McCarey directs this screwball marital comedy that stars Cary Grant and Irene Dunne as a divorcing couple who secretly still love each other, so try desperately to thwart the other's romance: He to a "haughty" socialite(Molly Lamont), she to a "country bumpkin" oil magnate(Ralph Bellamy) He comes up with a scheme to visit their dog Mr. Smith, she tries to convince his fiancée that she is his scandalous sister. Guess what happens next. Oddly unappealing comedy has some laughs, but two obnoxious lead characters that aren't as wonderful as they think they are; stacks the deck by making their rivals look bad, which was grossly unfair. They really didn't seem that awful to me.