My Favorite Wife

1940 Cary Grant, Irene Dunne, Gail Patrick, Randolph Scott 88 minutes

Ellen Wagstaff Arden (Dunne), presumed drowned after a shipwreck seven years ago, comes home the same day her husband, Nick (Grant) has her declared legally dead and remarries. Ellen flies to Yosemite, surprising Nick at the start of his honeymoon. He struggles to tell his bride, Bianca (Patrick), that his wife has come back, never quite managing to get it done. Meanwhile, back at home, Ellen isn't doing any better telling her two children, babies when she last saw them, that she's their mother. When Nick comes home with Bianca, Ellen pretends to be an old family friend from the South.

The first evening home, Nick is on the verge of telling Bianca the truth when he's interrupted once again. This time, it's an insurance man at the front door, informing Nick that Ellen was stranded on the island, not alone as Nick had assumed, but with fellow survivor Stephen Burkett (Scott). After Stephen runs into Ellen and Nick, he begins to actively court her, putting even more pressure on Nick to decide who is his favorite wife.

"My Favorite Wife" is based on Lord Tennyson's poem, "Enoch Arden," and re-teams Irene Dunne for the second time (the first was "The Awful Truth" in 1937) with Cary Grant, an actor she described as "more fun" to work with than other leading actors. She said, "I think we were a successful team because we enjoyed working together tremendously, and that pleasure must have shown through onto the screen."

The movie was nominated for three Academy Awards, including Best Writing, Original Story. 1962's "Something's Got to Give," Marilyn Monroe's final, unfinished movie, was a remake of "My Favorite Wife" with Dean Martin as Nick. Monroe was fired from the film, then later rehired. Martin refused to finish the movie with anyone but Monroe so the project was never finished after her sudden death. The material, including some sets, were eventually turned into "Move Over, Darling" in 1963, with Doris Day and James Garner.

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