Cary and Irene played a rich couple who I'm sure was well known in society circles. So at the party with his new girlfriend, why didn't everyone recognize her as his wife and not his sister?
sharerather an excellent point u make telecaster57! had not thought of it myself
cheers
Well, for one thing, it would have precluded possibly the funniest scene in film history!
share"Well, for one thing, it would have precluded possibly the funniest scene in film history!
quite right tad58- thinking of that scene still makes me chuckle tho i have not seen it in awhile.
cheers
Thanks, mrplankton. I encourage you to see it again. I watch it once a year or so, the old cliche 'they don't make 'em like this anymore' was never more true.
Cheers to you, too.
"Thanks, mrplankton. I encourage you to see it again. I watch it once a year or so, the old cliche 'they don't make 'em like this anymore' was never more true.
quite so tad58. its a delightful film that shall always remain a favourite of mine i daresay.
cheers!
I began watching this movie today, once again, and I'm smiling to myself in anticipation of "that scene".
What fun!
The crowd at the party were from the 'old money' strata, not the entrepreneurial 'new money' crowd with whom the Warriners would be familiar. One of the old money crowd whose scene(s) were cut was even a Lord!
shareI think that you must be right, joes119.
We're never told exactly where they live? What city? I just assumed it was New York. So, saying they lived in New York and that Jerry Warriner was only recently successful, I pictured them just as you say, as new money and Barbara Vance's crowd was really stuffy old money! So, I don't think that Jerry was accustomed to moving in those circles.
I pictures Barbara's crowd up at Sarratoga all Summer while Jerry and friends lived it up at more regular nightspots in New York or playing golf, squash and whatnot with his buddies.
Irene Dunne just stole the whole show in that scene!! Her rendition of My Dreams Are Gone With The Wind was hysterically funny! I just wished they could have somehow explained the upward air blast to be included too!
Could someone please tell me if this film was remade much later, say in the 50's or 60's ?? I remember that scene at the party in another later film. If I remember correctly, I think Rock Hudson played the husband in the later version. I can't remember who played the wife? It was a good film.
shareNo, The Awful Truth was not re made, thank God. Although so many of Dunne's great movies were!
I wonder if you may be thinking of the Marilyn Monroe scene, I think in Some like it Hot???
It's in The Seven Year Itch actually, although both are directed by Billy Wilder. I kept thinking of that movie during this scene in the movie!
shareSomeone tried to remake the Awful Truth as a musical, similar to the Philadelphia Story. It was called "Let's Do It Again" and starred Jane Wyman; and it was truthfully awful.
As for the plot hole, Jerry was telling a story about his father playing football for Princeton at the engagement party before Lucy arrives, so his family must have been old money also. Anyway, I was thinking the same thing that Barbara must have known Lucy.
Although it is a great, great scene, I also thought that was a bit weak.
As another sort of plothole, I thought the whole thing with her answering the phone was kind of dumb. First, that it had to be explained, and second, why not just say, "Oh, that's my ex-wife. We're going over some of the divorce stuff." That wouldn't have been too hard, right? After all, it was in the papers that very day that he was soon to be a divorced bachelor again, so it's not as if it's a secret that he's married.
I asked the doctor to take your picture so I can look at you from inside as well.
Oh, how far are we removed from this era to think that "Oh, that is my ex-wife" would be a valid explanation.
The part about answering the phone is not a plot hole. In those days women were not supposed to be in a man's room (or apt) unless they were married. So the very fact that they were divorcing is a very big reason to stay away from the guy's rooms, as it gave the idea they were back together again. Which in fact is what Irene's character was trying to accomplish and upset things with the "bride".
If you notice, Cary couldn't even explain it to the hotel security man, and was "banned" from returning to Irene's room later on.
There's something you need to know about divorce law in the 1930s, that isn't true anymore, which also explains the ending of the movie (SPOILER ALERT to come).
A divorce in progress would be nullified if the divorcing couple had sex before the divorce was final. It was a counterpart to the law on consummation of marriages and annulments.
So, if Lucy was caught in Jerry's room, and no one else was present, a legal complication could result. They might either end up submitting affidavits that nothing happened, or beginning divorce proceedings all over again, and divorce was not automatic then; you needed grounds, and a judge could deny a petition. A second petition after a couple was caught together was just the kind that might get denied. So it wasn't just a question of impropriety; there was a legal reason for Lucy and Jerry not to be alone together, especially in an hotel room.
SPOILER ALERT:
Lucy and Jerry's divorce is final at midnight. A divorce can be nullified if the couple "re-consummates" before the order is finalized. This means they have until midnight to have sex, in order to stay married. They audience in 1937 would know this. That's the whole deal with the clock, and whether or not Lucy is going to let Jerry into her bed before midnight, and also the coy shot of the boy on the clock going in the girl's door-- it lets the audience know what the camera can't show-- that the divorce was nullified.
Interesting info, Rivkah, thanks. I barely remember the movie - I only saw it once over three years ago, but I'll watch for this next time.
I want the doctor to take your picture so I can look at you from inside as well.
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They briefly mention in the opening scene in the house before Lucy enters that Jerry is from Texas. Even though he obviously does have some money, I doubt that these New York old money-ites would know anything about Texas society.
I think I've watched this film too many times...
OK. My father was born in 1930, and I asked him about this when I first saw the movie, because I suspected that it wasn't so much of a plothole to people then, and he confirmed that I was right.
People just didn't know so much what other people looked like then.
Now, we get bombarded with images of people. Magazines have glossy, color pictures, and we see color images on TV and the internet every day, we email images, and soforth.
There used to be a saying, that a nice girl only had her picture in the paper three times: when she was engaged, when she married, and when she died. And those were grainy, black and white pictures. You were unlikely to recognize a person from a newspaper photo, unless she had her hair fixed exactly the same way, and it was very recently that it had been published.
Now it's true that the Warriners (Jerry's parents) and the Vances could have met, or that the younger Warriners, and the Vances, plus Barbara and an escort, could have met at a large party, but it's not all that unbelievable they would not recognize Lucy again. Her hair was different, her mannerisms were different, her speech was different, and she claimed to be someone else. The younger Warriners and the Vances are not close friends, clearly, who attend small parties together, or play bridge, or whatever, and Barbara may have been away at school, or traveling, and really not met Lucy, or at least not recently.
It was really just a different time, and people didn't know each other so well by sight. Going a year without seeing someone, and not seeing a picture in the interim, and then have them deliberately looking different, you really might not recognize them.