Its sophistication convinced the Academy that it was more than "just" a comedy and they awarded McCarey the Best Director Oscar
Comment
12/06/05
The Awful Truth (1937)
91
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:23
Fresh:21
Rotten:2
Average Rating:7.9/10
Consensus: Great comic direction by Leo McCarrey and memorable onscreen chemistry from stars Cary Grant and Irene Dunne make this screwball comedy a charmer.
Runtime: 1 hr 32 mins
Genre: Comedies
Synopsis: In one of the supreme screwball comedies, young husband and wife Jerry and Lucy (Cary Grant and Irene Dunne, respectively), suspicious that the other is having an affair, start divorce proceedings... [More]
Starring: Cary Grant, Irene Dunne, Ralph Bellamy, Cecil Cunningham
Director: Leo McCarey
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Reviews for The Awful Truth
Zappy, sophisticated screwball comedy with Grant and Dunne displaying perfect timing.
06/24/06
This comedy is a hilarious match-up between Cary Grant and Irene Dunne, with the wonderful Ralph Bellamy cast in his pigeonholed role as the fifth wheel.
03/10/03
Cary Grant ... delivers one of the greatest comic performances we'll ever have the pleasure of witnessing.
03/26/03
To be frank, The Awful Truth is awfully unimportant, but it is also one of the more laughable screen comedies of 1937, a fairly good vintage year.
05/21/03
Top CriticThe Awful Truth (1937) is one of the classic, definitive screwball comedies of the thirties. Producer/director Leo McCarey's stylish light comedy is a witty battlefield
01/01/00
One should be rooting for Cary Grant to get the girl, which means he ought to deserve her — and if that's more or less the case here, well, it's only because the girl turns out to be no great shakes either.
02/10/06
Leo McCarey's largely improvised 1937 film is one of the funniest of the screwball comedies, and also one of the most serious at heart.
05/27/08
Top CriticOne of the best screwball comedies (of remarriage) ever made, based on the astute mise-en-scene of director Leo McCarey (who won an Oscar) and superb turns from Cary Grant and Irene Dunne as the sparrying partners who go to court over their dog (Asta).
11/09/06
It is a surprisingly tight and densely-packed comedy with excellent performances all around.
01/01/00
Grant's antics are hysterical.
01/01/00
...has earned its reputation as one of the most effective screwball comedies from the 1930s.
04/10/07
A smart screwball comedy from the 1930s that's given the Lubitsch touch by director Leo McCarey.
01/07/06
The look of love [Grant] gives co-star Irene Dunne, captured not in a close-up but a medium-wide shot, could melt anyone.
02/17/06
As pleasurable as anything a Hollywood studio and the star system ever produced.
04/04/03
A superbly lighthearted production, and the epitome of 1930s screwball comedies.
01/01/00
A joy.
05/27/08
Episodic but sublime screwball comedy, with Grant and Dunne at their most alluring.
08/16/03
Brilliant romantic comedy from Leo McCarey
08/26/02
No review available.
07/05/03
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