The Awful Truth


The Awful Truth is a 1937 American screwball comedy film directed by Leo McCarey, and starring Irene Dunne and Cary Grant. Based on the 1922 play The Awful Truth by Arthur Richman, the film recounts a distrustful rich couple who begin divorce proceedings, only to interfere with one another's romances.
This was McCarey's first film for Columbia Pictures, with the dialogue and comic elements largely improvised by the director and actors. Irene Dunne's costumes were designed by Robert Kalloch. Although Grant tried to leave the production due to McCarey's directorial style, The Awful Truth saw his emergence as an A-list star and proponent of on-the-set improvisation.
The film was a huge box office success and was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actress, and Best Supporting Actor, winning for Best Director. The film was selected in 1996 for preservation in the Library of Congress' National Film Registry, having being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". The Awful Truth was the first of three films co-starring Grant and Dunne, followed by My Favorite Wife and Penny Serenade.

Plot

Jerry Warriner tells his wife he is going on vacation to Florida but instead disappears for two weeks without telling anyone where he is really going. He returns home, with a sunlamp tan, to find that his wife, Lucy, spent the night in the company of her handsome voice teacher, Armand Duvalle. Lucy claims his car broke down unexpectedly, but Jerry refuses to believe Lucy's assurances that nothing untrustworthy happened. Upon seeing the oranges in the basket Jerry brought home from Florida stamped “California” Lucy discovers that Jerry did not go to Florida. Their mutual suspicion results in divorce proceedings, with custody of their dog, “Mr. Smith,” in dispute. When the judge pronounces that he will grant custody to whomever Mr. Smith responds to when called, Lucy wins custody with concealed dog toy in her hand. The judge grants Jerry visiting rights to the dog and orders the divorce finalized in 90 days.
Lucy moves into an apartment with her Aunt Patsy. Her neighbor is amiable but rustic Oklahoma oilman Dan Leeson, whose mother does not approve of Lucy. On a visitation to Mr. Smith, Jerry subtly ridicules Dan in front of Lucy, which causes Lucy defiantly to cling closely to Dan. Jerry begins dating sweet-natured but simple singer Dixie Belle Lee, unaware that she performs a vulgar act at a local nightclub where a wind machine blows her skirt up. When Lucy and Dan turn up at the nightclub and see the act, Jerry is embarrassed, and Lucy makes witticisms as payback for Jerry's ridicule of Dan.
Convinced that Lucy is still having an affair with Duvalle, Jerry bursts into Duvalle's apartment only to discover that Lucy is a legitimate vocal student of Duvalle and is giving her first recital in front of an audience. When Lucy announces her engagement to Dan, realizing he may still love Lucy, Jerry undermines Lucy's character with Mrs. Leeson, implying Lucy's infidelity as the cause of their divorce. On a subsequent visit to Mr. Smith, Jerry arrives as Duvalle is paying an unexpected visit to Lucy. Alarmed that Jerry will think Duvalle is there at her request, Lucy asks Duvalle to hide in her bedroom while Jerry plays with the dog. During a game of hide-and-seek, Mr. Smith reveals Duvalle's forgotten hat where Lucy hid it just before Jerry entered the salon. Dan and his mother arrive; Jerry sarcastically states that he never had any doubt about Lucy's fidelity, while Dan and his mother apologize for assuming the worst about her. Jerry discovers Duvalle hiding in Lucy's bedroom and they end up in a fight. When Jerry chases Duvalle out the door, Mrs. Leeson assumes the worst is true and Dan breaks off his engagement to Lucy; he and his mother return to Oklahoma.
A few weeks later, Jerry begins dating the famous heiress, Barbara Vance, whose romance is covered in the society column. Realizing she still loves Jerry, Lucy crashes a party at the Vance mansion the night the divorce decree is to become final. Pretending to be Jerry's sister, she undermines Jerry's character, implying that "their" father was working class rather than wealthy. Acting like a showgirl, she recreates Dixie's risqué musical number. The snobbish Vances are appalled. Jerry attempts to explain away Lucy's behavior as drunkenness, and says he will drive Lucy home.
Lucy repeatedly sabotages the car on the ride to delay their parting. Pulled over by motorcycle police officers, who believe Jerry is drunk, Lucy manages to wreck the car. The police give the couple a lift to Aunt Patsy's nearby cabin. Although sleeping in different bedrooms, Jerry and Lucy slowly overcome their pride and a series of comic mishaps to admit "the awful truth" that they still love one another. They reconcile at midnight, just before their divorce is to be finalized.

Cast

The cast includes:

Pre-production

The film is based on the stage play The Awful Truth by playwright Arthur Richman. In that play, created on September 18, 1922, at the Henry Miller's Theater of Broadway, Norman Satterly divorces his wife, Lucy Warriner Satterly, after they accuse one another of infidelity. Lucy is about to remarry, but needs to clear her name before her fiancé will agree to go forward with the marriage. As she tries to salvage her reputation, she falls in love again with her ex-husband and they remarry.
There were two previous film versions, a 1925 silent film The Awful Truth from Producers Distributing Corporation starring Warner Baxter and Agnes Ayres and a 1929 sound version from Pathé Exchange, The Awful Truth, starring Ina Claire and Henry Daniell. Producer D.A. Doran had purchased the rights to the play for Pathé. When Pathé closed, he joined Columbia Pictures. Columbia subsequently purchased all of Pathé's scripts and screenplay rights for $35,000. Doran chose to remake the film in 1937, just as Columbia head Harry Cohn was hiring director Leo McCarey to direct comedies for the studio.
Cohn offered the film to director Tay Garnett. Garnett read Dwight Taylor's script, and felt it was "about as funny as the seven-year-itch in an iron lung." He turned it down. According to Garnett, McCarey accepted the project simply because he needed work. "Sure, the script was terrible, but I've seen worse. I worked it over for a few weeks, changed this and that. I finally decided I could make something of it."
McCarey did not like the narrative structure of the play, the previous film versions, or the unproduced Pathé script. Cohn had already assigned Everett Riskin to produce the film, and screenwriter Dwight Taylor had a draft script. Taylor changed Norman Satterly to Jerry Warriner, got rid of much of the play's moralistic tone, and added a good deal of screwball comedy. Jerry is violence-prone, and the couple fight over a necklace. Much of the action in Taylor's script is set at Jerry's club. The mishaps in the script cause Jerry to crack up emotionally. When the couple visit their old home, his love for his wife is rekindled.
McCarey didn't like Taylor's script. He believed, however, that The Awful Truth would do well at the box office. With the Great Depression in its seventh year, he felt audiences would enjoy seeing a picture about rich people having troubles. During face-to-face negotiations with Cohn, McCarey demanded $100,000 to direct. Cohn balked. McCarey wandered over to a piano and began to play show-tunes. Cohn, an avid fan of musicals, decided that anyone who liked that kind of music had to be talented—and he agreed to pay McCarey's fee. He also agreed not to interfere in the production.
McCarey's hiring was not announced until April 6, 1937. Riskin withdrew from the film as McCarey insisted on producing.

Script

McCarey worked with screenwriter Viña Delmar and her regular collaborator, her husband, Eugene. The couple had written racy novels as well as the source material and screenplay for McCarey's Make Way for Tomorrow. The Delmars refused to work anywhere but their home, visit the studio or the set, or to meet any of the actors when working on a script. In a letter to author Elizabeth Kendall, Viña Delmar said that McCarey worked with them on the script at their home, suggesting scenes. McCarey asked the Delmars to drop the major plot points of the play—which focused on Dan Leeson's attempt to purchase mineral rights, a fire in Lucy Warriner's apartment building, and Lucy's midnight meeting with another man at a luxurious mountain resort—and focus on the pride which Jerry and Lucy feel and which keeps them from reconciling.
According to the Delmars, they completed a script which included musical numbers, making it resemble musical theatre more than screwball comedy. It also largely retained the play's narrative structure, with four acts: the break-up at the Warriner house, events at Jerry Warriner's sports club, arguments and misunderstandings at Lucy Warriner's apartment, and a finale at Dan Leeson's apartment. The sets were simple, and few actors were needed.
According to other accounts, Mary C. McCall Jr., Dwight Taylor, and Dorothy Parker all worked on the script as well. None of their work was used by McCarey, and Taylor even asked that his name be taken off the script. Ralph Bellamy says that McCarey himself then wrote a script, completely reworking Delmar's effort. Harry Cohn was not happy with McCarey's decision to abandon Delmar's work, but McCarey convinced the studio boss that he could rework it. Film historians Iwan W. Morgan and Philip Davies say that McCarey retained only a single aspect of Delmar's work: The alleged infidelity of both man and wife.

Casting

Irene Dunne had freelanced and had not been under contract to a studio since her arrival in Hollywood. She appeared in Theodora Goes Wild for Columbia, and despite her misgivings about doing comedy her performance had garnered her an Academy Award nomination as Best Actress. Dunne wanted to undertake a new project quickly after negative reaction to her performing in blackface in Show Boat. Her agent, Charles K. Feldman, helped develop The Awful Truth for Dunne, and the film was rushed into production to accommodate her. McCarey wanted her for the film because he thought the "incongruity" of a "genteel" actress like Dunne in screwball comedy was funny, and she was asked to appear in it even though Delmar was still working on a script. Dunne was attached to the picture in mid-February 1937, although commitments to other stage and film projects meant production could not begin for several months. Dunne was paid $75,000 for her work. Dunne later said her decision to work on the film was "just an accident".
Cary Grant was cast three days after Dunne. Grant had also recently become a freelance actor without long-standing contractual obligations to any studio. By late 1936, he was negotiating a contract with Columbia. He ran into McCarey on the street, and told McCarey he was free. In February 1937, he signed a non-exclusive contract with Columbia Pictures in which he agreed to make four films over two years, provided each film was a prestige picture. He was paid $50,000 to appear in The Awful Truth. Grant was eager to work with McCarey, McCarey wanted Grant, and Cohn assigned Grant to the picture.
For Ralph Bellamy, a contract player with Columbia, the film was just another assignment. Delmar's draft script, sent to Bellamy by his agent, originally described Dan Leeson as a conservative, prudish Englishman, a role written with Roland Young in mind. Per his agent's request, Bellamy ignored the script. Some time later, Bellamy got a call from his good friend, the writer Mary McCall, who asked him to work with her on redeveloping the role. McCall had been instructed to change the Leeson character into someone from the American West. They spent an afternoon together, and recrafting the character as well as writing a scene for his entrance in the film. After more time passed, Bellamy ran into writer Dwight Taylor at a cocktail party and learned that Taylor was rewriting his part. After a few weeks more, Dorothy Parker called Bellamy to tell him she was now working on the script and changing his role once more. The second week of June 1937, Bellamy's agent told him he'd been cast in The Awful Truth and was to report to the studio the next Monday. His casting was announced on June 23.
Joyce Compton was cast on June 9, and Alexander D'Arcy was cast some time before July 11.
For the animal role of Mr. Smith, two dogs were cast but did not work out. Skippy, better known to the public as "Asta" in the Thin Man film series, was cast at the end of June. Skippy proved difficult to work with. For a critical scene in which Mr. Smith is to leap into Jerry Warriner's arms, a white rubber mouse was placed in Cary Grant's breast pocket. But whenever Grant held his arms open, Skippy would dodge him at the last moment. It took several days to get the shot. The human cast of The Awful Truth was also forced to take several unscheduled days of vacation in late July 1937 because Skippy was booked on another film.