This great movie made Cary Grant a star..
And when asked years later he said that Irene Dunne was the best actress he had worked with.
shareAnd yet according to IMDB trivia, he asked to be released from the role during production! So many great films and performances have been beset by this doubt - It Happened One Night, The Godfather, Star Wars...
shareAlso according to the IMDb trivia:
"Much of the film was improvised by director Leo McCarey and the cast during filming each day."
Grant apparently never worked liked this before, and thought the film would be a failure. Ralph Bellamy said that not only did Grant worried, but so did Irene Dunne. Bellamy mentioned that she was crying after the first day (or first week) of shooting. It seems, fortunately, that everyone warmed up to Leo McCarey's style of working. Several times throughout the film, it looks like both Irene and Cary were going to break character and start laughing.
Thank heavens everything worked out fine!! This is definitely a screwball classic. Very few on-screen teams had better chemistry than Irene Dunne and Cary Grant.
"Dry your eyes baby, it's out of character."