My Favorite Wife (1940) on Netflix
Ellen Arden's ship was lost seven years ago, and she was presumed dead. She returns home to find her husband Nick has just married Bianca and left on his honeymoon.
- Netflix3.8/5
- IMDb7.2/1012,802 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes86%
Trailer
Plot summary
Nick Arden, a lawyer, has his wife Ellen declared legally dead and marries Bianca the same day, with the judge from the hearing performing the ceremony. Ellen survived. She was shipwrecked seven years earlier and has just been rescued from a deserted island. She comes home to her son Tim and daughter Chinch, who do not recognize her, though the family dog does, and her mother-in-law tells her Nick has already left for his honeymoon. Ellen flies to Yosemite and reaches the hotel ahead of the newlyweds, catching Nick in the lobby before he and Bianca settle into their suite. Nick books Ellen a room of her own so they can talk, and keeps postponing the moment he tells Bianca.
Cast
- Mary Lou Harringtonas Chinch Arden
- Joe Cabrillasas Phillip
Show all 20 cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about My Favorite Wife (1940)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Leo McCarey was nearly killed in a car accident before filming began, so Garson Kanin took over as director. Gail Patrick recalled that the cast was 'desperately trying to be funny' while McCarey lay at death's door, and pre-production meetings were held in his hospital room.
- After two previews showed the film sagged in the middle, Leo McCarey had the cast and writers dismissed, then brought back the judge from the opening scene to comment on the story's problems. McCarey wrote the judge's new dialogue himself with help from Gail Patrick, who had studied law, and the fix worked.
- Gail Patrick, who played Bianca, suggested that her character should end up with Randolph Scott's Stephen Burkett, but director Garson Kanin rejected the idea, saying she was going too far.
- The 1962 remake starring Marilyn Monroe, Dean Martin, and Cyd Charisse was left unfinished when Monroe died; Martin backed out after the studio tried to recast her role with Lee Remick. Surviving footage was later cobbled together, with some scenes reshot with Remick.
- Cary Grant's elevator scene, where he sees his first wife Irene Dunne, was repeated in Move Over, Darling and remade in a similar scene in the 1998 film The Parent Trap, in which Dennis Quaid sees his separated wife Natasha Richardson in an elevator.
