Plot: What’s it about?
Jerry Warriner (Cary Grant) and his wife Lucy (Irene Dunne) had a mostly happy marriage, but doubts about loyalty have caused a rift. Both had suspicions about potential fidelity lapses, which lead to the decision to pursue a divorce. As they head toward the final parting, the main issue is custody of Mr. Smith, the couple’s canine companion. As it turns out, Lucy is allowed to keep Mr. Smith, but Jerry has been given visitation rights. Before the divorce has even been finalized, both also find themselves in new relationships and in each case, things have moved fast enough to cause some concern from the other side. Lucy has met Daniel Leeson (Ralph Bellamy), a wealthy, but dull country bumpkin and even become engaged, which sparks something within Jerry. But it leads to his own engagement to Barbara Vance (Molly Lamont), a sophisticated and aristocratic young woman. As time passes, both do whatever they can to sabotage the other’s engagement, including impersonating relatives and abusing visitation rights to Mr. Smith. Somewhere in all this mess, Jerry realizes that he wants to get back together with Lucy, but knowing these two, even true love won’t make things that simple…
I am very pleased to see this movie released to DVD, as The Awful Truth is a brisk and highly enjoyable picture. I don’t think it would have worked if with different leading actors or a different director, but as it stands, all the pieces fall in line. In fact, Cary Grant almost didn’t take the role, as he didn’t think the movie could work well, but of course, his presence is one of the main reasons it turned out to be so good. Grant and his costars, mainly Irene Dunne and Ralph Bellamy, dish out some excellent performances and whenever the material wanes a little, they’re able to pick up the slack and maintain balance. And while the dialogue is well crafted in The Awful Truth, the real reason for its success it how it is delivered. This kind of material needs two stars with great chemistry, ones that can go back and forth with immense skill. As much as like this movie, I do think it is carried by several individual scenes. A few sequences are simply magical, scenes where all the elements are executed to sheer perfection. But then others seem flat and ineffective, so there’s a certain inconsistent texture in that respect. But The Awful Truth is a solid, very entertaining romantic comedy, if just for the wonderful performances. Columbia’s disc is as bare as they come, so unless you’re a big fan, a rental should suffice.
Although he had an almost endless string of great performances and is known as one of the greatest movie stars of all time, Cary Grant was only nominated for two Oscars and won none, unless you count his “honorary” award. That’s a shocking fact to be sure, since Grant was so popular and had so many excellent efforts. In movies these days, we have movie stars and then we have actors, guys like Russell Crowe and Ben Affleck carry the movie star banner, while folks like Ed Harris and Robert Duvall fall into the actors range, but when it comes time for the Oscars, the voters seem to love to go with the movie stars. The actors get nominated of course, but the mainstream (i.e. Miramax) stuff tends to win over the real award level projects. So its odd that Grant never won a normal Oscar, since he was a major draw with audiences and was well liked by critics, a top notch all around performer. As shown here in and in numerous other movies, Grant could handle comic material with ease, in addition to more dramatic works. Other films with Grant include His Girl Friday, Bringing Up Baby, The Talk of the Town, Notorious, and North by Northwest. The cast also includes Irene Dunne (Show Boat, Love Affair), Ralph Bellamy (Trading Places, The Wolf Man), and Alexander D’Arcy (Horrors of Spider Island, Fanny Hill).
Video: How does it look?
The Awful Truth is presented in full frame, as intended. The image here is passable, but the time has come for some kind of restoration work to be done, as the years have taken a toll on these materials. So the print has some grain, debris, and other signs of wear, which soften the visuals and reduce visible detail levels. But given the film’s age, we should be a little less critical, though as I said, its time to spruce this one up a bit. I found contrast to be well balanced, but soft, so the black levels look consistent and effective, just not as refined as we’d like. So for a film released in 1937, I think this is a more than acceptable visual presentation, but let’s hope someone antes up for a restoration in the near future.
Audio: How does it sound?
This is a mono track from 1937, so you can’t expect much, but this manages to provide a clean & proper soundtrack. The sound effects come through well, even minor background detail is evident and that adds a lot to the impact of the audio. The music is in fine form and sounds as good as mono can, but that means not much range is used and that’s a shame. I found the dialogue to be a little harsh at times, but not too much and the overall clarity is fantastic. This isn’t the best mono track I’ve heard, but this is more than adequate. This disc also includes subtitles in English, Spanish, French, Japanese, and Portuguese.
Supplements: What are the extras?
This disc includes no bonus materials.
