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My Favorite Wife (1940)
In Garson Kanin's screwball comedy hit, again pairing
Irene Dunne and Cary Grant after their successful The
Awful Truth (1937), and remade (unsuccessfully) with Marilyn
Monroe as Something's Got To Give (1962):
- in an opening court scene, Judge Bryson
(Granville Bates) declared that 'widowed' attorney Nick Arden's
(Cary Grant) wife of seven years, Ellen Wagstaff Arden (Irene Dunne),
was declared legally dead after a seven year absence (and presumed
drowned in the Pacific Ocean); immediately, Nick was allowed to
remarry bride Bianca Bates (Gail Patrick)
- Ellen made a surprise and unexpected reappearance
at her home after seven years, where she spoke to her two young children
who didn't know her, Tim (Scott Beckett) and Chinch (Mary Lou Harrington),
and Nick's mother Ma (Ann Shoemaker); she learned it was the
day of her husband Nick's remarriage to Bianca and their honeymoon
night, and tracked them down
- at Yosemite Park
lodge during their honeymoon, when newly-married Nick
Arden entered the lodge elevator, and as the door closed taking him
and his newlywed bride Bianca up to Suite 'C', Nick caught a surprise
glimpse of his first wife Ellen in the lodge's lobby, supposedly
legally dead - however, she had unexpectedly returned after being
shipwrecked for seven years on an island before being rescued by
a Portuguese freighter, and was trying to locate him (at the same
locale where they had honeymooned seven years earlier)
- frustrations were experienced
by a perturbed Bianca, who thought her erratic and strange-acting
husband (full of variety of excuses as he tried to get together with
Ellen and avoid his husbandly duties) was purposely avoiding her
on their honeymoon night, especially when, almost immediately, he
declared that he needed a shave in the hotel's barber shop: ("You
know what I need?...A shave...I'll go down to the barber shop. Be
right back...Aw, I feel like a hairy ape...well, I don't feel right
unless I shave...")
Nick to Avoid Bianca: "You know what I need?...A
shave..."
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Nick's Ordering of a Second Room - Suite 'A' for
Ellen
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Nick's Faked Phone Call to Bianca
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- Nick appeared in a second scene with the confused
hotel desk clerk when he snuck away from Bianca and ordered a second
room, Suite 'A', for another wife - Ellen: ("I'd like to have
another room"), and the clerk's reaction: ("What a man!")
- Nick made a fake phone call to Bianca: (Nick:
"Something's come up" Bianca: "Why don't you come up?")
and claimed that he had left the hotel, was in Carmel and enroute by
plane to San Francisco (it was "a matter of life or death"),
but then he ran into her as he fled from the phone booth - she eyed
him suspiciously
- upon their return home from the honeymoon, Nick was
having trouble telling the truth to Bianca ("My wife's come
back"), and he decided to not tell his children that Bianca
was their step-mother; Ellen also tormented and humiliated Nick and
Bianca by pretending to be a Southern-accented, obnoxious visiting
friend of the family
- there was the revelatory discovery during a late-night
visit by an insurance adjuster/officer Mr. Johnson (Hugh O'Connell),
who had paid out Ellen's American Life Accident insurance policy,
that it was rumored (unverified) that there may have been a second
person on the island with Ellen, named Stephen Burkett (Randolph
Scott), who was reported drowned (and rescued) at the same time;
Nick was further inflamed by the fact that Ellen and Stephen had
allegedly called themselves "Adam"
and "Eve" on the island
- crazed by jealousy and feeling like Ellen had deceived
him, Nick tracked down Burkett, finding him to be a handsome, virile,
health-nut and athletic diver and pool swimmer at the posh Pacific
Club - when Nick first spotted Burkett on the diving board, a woman
came up to him and asked: ("Young man? Is that Johnny Weissmuller?"),
and Nick jealously replied: ("No, I wish it were")
- Ellen unsuccessfully tried to fool Nick
by recruiting a mousy, bald-headed shoe salesman (Chester Clute)
to claim that he was the "Adam" character while they were
on the island
- in a second courtroom scene
after Nick was arrested for bigamy, befuddled Judge Bryson was confused
by the complications of the case; he had already declared Ellen
legally dead, annulled the first marriage, and approved the second
marriage; after he annulled Nick's second marriage, Bianca added
that Nick was "legally
dead" to her after punching him in the face (and causing a bloody
nose); the judge noted: ("I'd like to tell my wife about this
case. She thinks all my cases are dull")
The Complicated Courtroom Case: Nick Charged With
Bigamy
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Nick Arrested for Bigamy
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Before the Judge
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Judge Bryson (Granville Bates)
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- although Ellen kept denying any fidelity, Nick kept
believing that she had been unfaithful; in their mountain cabin,
Ellen told her still non-committal husband Nick, who was sleeping
in a separate bed in the attic, to think things over by
taking a sixty-day cruise and coming back around Christmas-time:
(Ellen: "Well,
that's not so long. Let's see, November, December, 23, 2...it could
be just about Christmas time. You come back and talk to me about
it then. We'll have a lovely Christmas. After all, what's 59 days
more?")
- in the final
scene in the cabin, Nick thought of a number of strategies
to reconcile himself with Ellen; he returned dressed
up as Santa Claus to join her in her bedroom rather than sleep
separately in the attic; he pulled down his fake beard to wish
her a "Merry
Christmas!" [The words "Good night" were written
in white letters on a black screen as the film ended]
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In Court: Nick Arden's (Cary Grant) Remarriage to Bianca
(Gail Patrick)
Ellen's Surprise Reappearance at Her Home - When Husband
Nick Was Away on His Honeymoon
At Yosemite Lodge - Nick Arden with 2nd Wife Bianca
Nick's Glimpse of First Wife Ellen From Elevator
Ellen (Irene Dunne) - In the Lobby of the Lodge
Ellen Pretending to Be Southern Friend of the Arden
Family
Life Insurance Adjuster
Ellen's "Adam" - Virile Stephen Burkett
(Randolph Scott)
Shoe Salesman Masquerading as "Adam"
Last Scene: Nick Dressed as Santa
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