Solemplex To me, this movie is perfection.

Teringer An Exercise In Nonsense

Zlatica One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Haven Kaycee It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

mark.waltz Long before accent prone Meryl showed off her singing pipes beyond her Streep throat, another serious actress brought her golden voice, dancing talents and comical timing to a handful of '50s musicals. That star is Jane Wyman, and boy is she sexy here! The former Mrs. Ronald Reagen is a gay divorcée, finding life again after giving musical revue creator husband Ray Milland the heave-ho and beginning a tet-a-tet with brawny Aldo Ray. While Wyman is totally wild in her musical sequences, Milland brings on chuckles in his sequence, reminding me of Pierce Brosnan in Mama Mia! Then, there's Valarie Bettis, an Eve Arden type singing the ultra camp "Call of the Wild" (later repeated with the same breathiness by Wyman) as if she had an eternal case of laryngitis. Wyman really kicks up the heat with "Slow Burn", showing off a gorgeous figure that is especially a shock for her Falcon Crest fans.A somewhat misguided remake of The Awful Truth, the situations seem occasionally forced, but every time remake queen Wyman comes on screen, that element totally disappears. Mary Treen takes over the typical Mary Wickes maid role, tossing off barbs as if they were Gypsy Rose Lee's glove. Also amusing is veteran Leon Ames as the couple's best pal. Milland is an adequate romantic lead, occasionally funny, but certainly better when he isn't singing. As directed by veteran Alexander Hall, the film never bores and moves at a speedy pace. Golden Girls fans will enjoy an unrelated reference to Shady Pines.

Neil Doyle Once I realized that Ray Milland was doing a poor imitation of Cary Grant's mugging in the original screwball comedy, "The Awful Truth," I knew why the film failed to sparkle as a comedy. Added to the comedy are some musical interludes that fall as flat as the dialog. The whole film leaves you feeling that it's a silly waste of time.And in the central role of a woman determined to win her hubby back, Jane Wyman is dressed to kill but looks more like an uptight woman too prudish to display herself in such a lavish wardrobe. Only when she lets loose pretending to be Milland's hyperactive sister and demonstrates some of her flair for musical comedy does her performance come to life. Otherwise, you keep expecting those tears to flow.The story may have worked in the '30s when screwball comedy was supreme and was handled with comic dexterity by a sparkling cast. But here it gets a flat reception from an uncomfortable looking Ray Milland, a miscast Wyman and an equally out-of-his-element Aldo Ray.Summing up: A bad remake of a popular screwball comedy, it falls far short of the mark in every department--writing, acting, direction. Only Tom Helmore (the scheming husband of "Vertigo") manages to look and act as urbane and distinguished as the part demands with the proper comic flair.

tonstant viewer A limp musical remake of one of the great screwball comedies of all time, "The Awful Truth," this film is a inadvertent valentine to Cary Grant, Irene Dunne and Ralph Bellamy, all of whom are sorely missed. And director Alexander Hall is no Leo McCarey either.The principal actors look desperate, and flail around ineffectually. The songs are weak, but mercifully short. In order not to make Jane Wyman look bad, there are no women on screen under the age of 35. The fashions are without even historical interest, Columbia's colors are rancid, the sets are claustrophobic, the whole proceedings seem strangely depopulated and the action takes place in a vacuum.No wonder people stayed home to watch their new-fangled televisions. This is worse than "The Opposite Sex," MGM's musicalization of "The Women." Don't bother.

moonspinner55 Jane Wyman's recent passing has elicited a great flurry of comments about her strong work ethic, her humble modesty and her strict no-gossip code, all admirable qualities. But her acting legacy leaves little evidence that she was a versatile performer capable of conquering a variety of thematic realms (and her finest performance, in "Johnny Belinda", which won her an Oscar, suffered at the hands of a second-rate script). In this musicalized version of Arthur Richman's play "The Awful Truth", filmed as a straight comedy in 1937, Wyman wears a succession of shoulder-exposing, low-cut cocktail dresses and fur-lined evening wear, yet her wardrobe doesn't match her personality; Wyman's short, old-lady bob and her harried little face never give the impression she's having a good time. She gives the proverbial Jane Wyman Performance, that of a prudish woman forced by circumstance into skirting grown-up female issues. It seems her little-girl tricks of making songwriter-hubby Ray Milland jealous have turned him away, so Wyman, unconvincingly portraying a musical starlet, attempts to woo Milland back with more little-girl tricks. News of the couple's pending divorce brings other men Wyman's way, but naturally she's too uptight to do anything more than a little fancy dancing with them (but then that's understandable, once you get a load of graceless, nervous Aldo Ray on the dance floor). The picture is nothing more than a fashion show set to the type of fake-nightclub music you'd never hope to hear again, and the creaky dialogue probably shamed Arthur Richman (Wyman to her maid: "Is the champagne ready?" The maid: "Ready, willing and able!"). Sure, it's undemanding fluff not meant to be taken seriously, but in the context of Wyman's B-minus career, it is Exhibit A. * from ****