It was this scene that made me adopt "Lola" as my alter ego! For my money, it is the funniest scene in all of Screwball Comedy history! Irene Dunne was the most versatile star in movie history--adept at melodrama, musicals and comedy! She was an actress, par excellence. It's just icing on the cake that she lived an exemplary personal life, as well. No scandal, committed to her faith and her marriage, and by all accounts a loving mother and grandmother. She lived to the ripe old age of 91 but was never honored by the Academy with an honorary Oscar. Five nominations and no win. Truly, the finest actress never to have been awarded the coveted statuette.
She's brilliant. She should have won the Academy Award for this role, but then as now, people have the mistaken notion that comedy is easier to do than drama. Not so, not good comedy, and CERTAINLY not of this caliber.
I have just watched this film, and absolutely love it. The lines are razor sharp, with plenty of wit, sparkle and belly laughs. Irene Dunne and Cary Grant act so well together, and the sparks are flying in every scene. I actually think Irene Dunne is a better partner with Cary Grant in screwball comedies than the great Katherine Hepburn (based just on this film anyway)
Caught this again today on TCM -- great film. Wonderful chemistry between Grant and Dunne. This is the second film where Grant is referred to as "Jerry The Nipper"..the other one is "Bringing Up Baby"..which featured Skippy the wire haired terrier who played "George" in that film and "Mr. Smith" in this film. Of course he's best known as "Asta" from the classic "Thin Man" films.
love this movie (im watching it right now on TCM for like the 100th time) the Gone With The Wind number is TWICE as funny if you see the night club scene at the beginning (love Mr. Smith too)
I'll tell her! Love the look on Irene's face when she says that. Also like, "I never would've known you from his description!" Perfect scene from a perfect movie.
Many thanks for the info. Dowson -- in the film "Laura" in the final scene, Waldo Lydecker is quoting lines from Dowson on his radio broadcast -- he quotes Dowson's poem "Days of Wine and Roses".
Dunne is an absurdist par excellence in this classic movie (one of the greats). And Grant is her equal! His character almost doesn't mind his ex-wife destroying his marital chances here. So adult, fun and knowing---can watch it till the cows come home!!.
"The number has some wind effects in it, but you'll just have to use your own imagination about them.' Lol. I would love to be in a situation where I can use that line genuinely.
I'm in love with the line "Ours you just wind," for some reason. The first time I saw this was in a theater, around 1987. I couldn't stop laughing when she said that, and nobody else in the theater was, which made me laugh harder, and I just got hysterics. I was falling out of my seat. I was only 20, but I owned a wind-up record player that was my grandmother's, and a whole bunch of old 78s, so maybe I just "got" it.
Look. Regardless of anything else, this is simply one of the funniest films ever made. And also one of the most real, which made it even funnier. How's your alarm clock doing?
Margaret Mitchell got the phrase from the third stanza of a poem written in 1894 by Ernest Dowson, which is in English despite the title "Non Sum Qualis eram Bonae Sub Regno Cynarae" (I am not what I was under the rule of [ie, in a relationship with] Cynara). I think Dowson coined the line exactly as it is, but phrases such as "went the way of the wind," for "completely gone and not coming back," had been around for a while. Don't quote me, though.
HAHAHAHA !!...I have never seen this movie....OH ! to have a "sister" like that!!....I really hope I can find the complete movie!!....HAHAHAHA...Dunne is just amazing!!....The part of the handkerchief at the sofa with that lady!!....i can,t stop laughing!!....wonderful scene!!...carlos
I don't know why, but it took about four watchings before I realized that in this scene, Irene Dunne's hair is fixed exactly (plus bow) like Joyce Compton's in the earlier "Dixie Belle Lee" scene.
This entire film is a giant "wink," and I mean that as a huge compliment. The last scene is the quintessence of screwball comedy, not to mention an ulcer for the censors. So what? It's a masterpiece.
I'd like to take those two to some snobby society parties in Dallas. The looks on the guests' faces are truly unforgetable. I bet they had to rehearse this many times. How could they not burst out laughing?
@elliottmajor I'll help you as much as I can. Both of the movies you mention can be catogorized as a Screwball Comedy. I'll message you for the rest of my analysis.
Grant tried to get out of this film, and was a little leary of other screwball roles, but when it came to comedy and glamor, every other actor was a runner up.
The point of so many of the screwball comedies (Awful Truth, Philadelphia Story, His Girl Friday - golly, they all seem to have had Cary Grant in them) is that marriage is more romantic than fooling around, because, paradoxically, people who are committed to each other are free. In the case of this movie, one of my absolute favorites, Lucy and Jerry Warriner realize when it's almost too late that they're much more themselves when they're together than when they're apart.
At 4:02, Cary Grant returns his handkerchief to his breast pocket. At 4:03, he's holding the folded handkerchief and again returns it to his breast pocket.
