Irene Dunne

Love Affair

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Terry and Michel at the ship's rail

The various remakes of Love Affair studied this 1939 original closely and learned the right lessons. The acting must be of a high order but more than that the leads must have chemistry. The story itself is relatively unimportant. It’s a case of two people meeting, falling in love before they know it and then fate and human frailty throwing impediments to happiness in their way. Standard stuff, really. The remakes are 1957’s An Affair to Remember, which pitted Cary Grant against Deborah Kerr. 1994’s Love Affair, with Annette Bening and Warren Beatty. And, a remake of sorts, Sleepless in Seattle, which starred Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan and was in dialogue with … Read more

Theodora Goes Wild

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Irene Dunne, Melvyn Douglas and Corky the dog

Almost a commentary on Hollywood’s transition from Pre-Code licence to Post-Code moralising, 1936’s Theodora Goes Wild is a breezy screwball comedy that straddles the decades with its opposition of conservative smalltown standards and liberal big-city values. Irene Dunne is the go-between, playing Theodora Lynn, a compliant daughter of the founding family of the small burgh of Lynnfield, but secretly also Caroline Adams, author of a work of racy fiction currently scandalising her staid puritanical aunts. Life for Theodora/Caroline continues on this twin track – dutiful mouse at home, sophisticated woman of the world on her visits to the city – until smoothie-chops New York book illustrator Michael Grant (Melvyn Douglas) takes a shine … Read more

The Awful Truth

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Lucy and Jerry have a cocktail

When The Awful Truth won the best director Oscar for Leo McCarey in 1937, McCarey straight-up said it wasn’t the best directed film of the year. It wasn’t even, he said, his best directorial effort of the year – he rated Make Way for Tomorrow more highly (and so has posterity). It’s easy to see why. Make Way for Tomorrow tackles a serious issue, with subject matter that’s even more relevant now than it was then – ageing parents abandoned by adult children. But The Awful Truth can claim a stake on glory, a more frivolous though still valid one, being the first time that the full Cary Grant persona – a balletic … Read more

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