Although not as wacky and funny as either Bringing Up Baby or Arsenic And Old Lace, this is a very funny and memorable Cary Grant comedy. I don't understand how someone could be disappointed by the movie, as one comment on IMDb stated, but everyone has their own taste (and I sure know of a lot of beloved films I hated).

Irene Dunn plays Grant's wife who has been lost at sea for many years. She and a man she is shipwrecked with were finally discovered and she returns home to Grant on the eve of his wedding! Apparently, after so many years he is ready to have her declared legally dead and proceed with his new fiancée. Her arrival sure throws a monkey wrench into their plans! However, when Grant finds out she was stranded along with the handsome Randolph Scott (FYI--he really was Cary Grant's best friend in real life),Cary isn't sure whether to get remarried or return to Dunn!

FYI--The same year this film debuted, another film with almost the exact same story line also came out called "TOO MANY HUSBANDS". While this other film was amiable enough, MY FAVORITE WIFE is better in every way. If you only see one of these films, be sure it's MY FAVORITE WIFE.

This is not my favourite screwball comedy of all time or anything, but I did really enjoy it. It is compared to The Awful Truth, and I will say I do prefer The Awful Truth, and while people may find this blasphemous I preferred 1963's Move Over Darling too.

Where the film doesn't quite succeed is that it felt a little too short, the film's end takes a little too long and felt misplaced and there are some moments in the middle where the film drags a bit.

However, it looks good, is well directed, is well scored, while the story is great, the screenplay a lot of fun and the performances from Irene Dunne, Gail Patrick and especially Cary Grant are fun. In terms of casting, the only weak link is Randolph Scott, not that he was terrible or anything but he is very underused seeing his role feels I agree more of a cameo than a fully-fleshed out character. So overall, good but not great, worth seeing for Grant. 6.5/10 Bethany Cox

Cary Grant's got a real problem on his hands. He thinks his wife was killed in a plane crash seven years ago. So he goes to court with Gail Patrick who he now intends to marry after getting the judge to declare Irene Dunne legally dead.

Wouldn't you know it, Dunne turns up the day of the honeymoon and puts Cary in an awful pickle. He's a lawyer and he's busy trying to work out all the ramifications of what's happened.

I've thought about it for a while and I came to the conclusion that it's Grant's professional training that prevents him from just confessing to one and all what's happened. Where a lot of the laughs come in is Grant trying to avoid marital consummation with Patrick until he can work it out.

Another factor comes into play when Grant learns that Dunne spent several years on the desert island with hunky Randolph Scott. Grant starts to feel a little less guilty then.

The whole mess is dumped on the judge who originally declared Dunne legally dead, Granville Bates. His role as the judge gives him some of the best lines in My Favorite Wife.

I do feel sorry for Gail Patrick though. Usually she plays a lot of bad girls and other women in movies. But she really is the wronged party here.

Dunne and Grant worked well together in another marital comedy, The Awful Truth and they were just as bright in My Favorite Wife as they were in the first film.

One interesting footnote it was a remake of this film Something's Gotta Give that Marilyn Monroe did not complete. Eventually it was made over with Doris Day and James Garner.

That one was good, but this one is great.