Cary Grant in The Awful Truth.

The Awful Truth is a quintessential 1930's screwball comedy. It also provided a major boost to the rising career of Cary Grant. The plot is light as a feather but will most assuredly tickle your funny bone.

Grant and Dunne are Jerry and Lucy Warriner, a madcap Manhattan society couple bent on divorce. In those days it took 90 days for a divorce to become final. Over the course of those 3 months these 2 each embark on a new relationship and at the same time do whatever they must to sabotage the other's budding romance.

I was never a huge fan of Irene Dunne, that is until I watched this movie. She is funny as hell in it. She has many great moments, from her first impressive entrance sweeping into their apartment in an all white - and oh so glamorous - fur, to my favorite moment of hers', where she pretends to be Jerry's loudmouthed and completely uncouth sister in order to turn off the snotty heiress he's become engaged to. She really shines as a comedienne.

For Cary Grant this is probably the first complete version of his iconic screen persona. The witty, debonair, impossibly handsome man-about-town with a flair for hair-trigger dialogue, but one that could also do a double-take or a pratfall like a silent movie comic. There is one very famous moment where he sits in a chair, leans back against a wall and then falls backwards. It is one of those clips that is always shown on television.

There is a scene where Cary Grant goes to find Irene Dunne, thinking she is with a man, of course she turns out to be singing in front of a room full of people. The Japanese servant at the house (played by Miki Morita) gets in a martial arts scuffle with Cary Grant. It is a brief but hilarious moment and I'm sure it must have influenced a young Peter Sellers since he staged similar scenes in his Pink Panther movies.

Ralph Bellamy was Oscar nominated for his supporting role as Dan Leeson, the wealthy but provincial Oklahoma businessman vying for Irene Dunne's affections (much like he would do for Rosalind Russell's in His Girl Friday, but honestly who would stand a chance against Cary Grant?) And Asta, the famous dog from The Thin Man movies gives an understated performance as "Mr. Smith" the pet that Jerry and Lucy battle for custody of.

This movie is full of little sparkling comic gems. Like the cat holding the door closed against Cary Grant in the final scene. Laugh for laugh The Awful Truth might just be the funniest screwball comedy of them all.

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