CRITICS CORNER

"A foolishness that doesn't go wrong or strained." - Otis Ferguson, The New Republic, October 1937.

"Cary Grant's best, fast light comedy performance to date." - Variety, October 1937.

"Its comedy is almost purely physical - with only here and there a lone gag to interrupt the pure poetry of motion, yet its unapologetic return to the fundamentals of comedy seems, we repeat, original and daring...a comedy in which speech is subsidiary" - Bosley Crowther, New York Times, October 1937.

"There's nothing special about the story...but the two stars are terrific, making amusing lines sound downright sophisticated, improvising, doing physical comedy...Entire production is bursting with energy...And the final scene, in which Grant and Dunne have connecting bedrooms, is a gem." - Danny Peary, Guide For the Film Fanatic.

"A rollicking comedy that should delight anyone." - New York Sun, October 1937.

"In Cary Grant and Irene Dunne, McCarey found the right balance of warmth and comedy technique. And as always with McCarey, it is our ability to see the joke coming and then watch the small improvement on expectation that constitutes the real impact." - David Thomson, A Biographical Dictionary of Film (Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1975).

"A classic screwball comedy...Irene Dunne's way with a quip is to smile brightly and wring it dry, but she's at her best here...Leo McCarey's direction is first-rate." - Pauline Kael, 5001 Nights at the Movies.

"McCarey transforms it through his customary affection for his characters and taut pacing into delightfully effective entertainment. The erotically teasing ending, with a black cat obstinately barring the communicating bedroom door which the almost un-estranged couple are praying will open, has a delicacy of touch that Lubitsch rarely managed." - Geoff Andrew, Time Out Film Guide (Penguin Books, 2000).

" Delightfully effective entertainment" - Time.

"Among the ingredients the raising powder is the important thing and out of the oven comes a frothy bit of stuff that leaves no taste in the mouth and is easy on the stomach." - Marion Fraser, World Film News.

"Classic crazy comedy of the thirties, marked by a mixture of sophistication and farce and an irreverent approach to plot." - Halliwell's Film & Video Guide.

Compiled by Rob Nixon

Awards & Honors

The Awful Truth (1937) was nominated for six Academy Awards: Best Picture, Actress (Dunne), Supporting Actor (Bellamy), Screenplay, Editing, and Director. When McCarey received the directing award (a big surprise, he said), he was rumored to have remarked, "You gave it to me for the wrong picture." He never got over the failure of Make Way for Tomorrow, released the same year and the one film of which he was always proudest.

In 1996, the film was chosen by the National Film Preservation Board to be one of the motion pictures preserved on the National Film Registry at the Library of Congress.