Too Many Husbands
| Too Many Husbands | |
|---|---|
 1940 theatrical poster | |
| Directed by | Wesley Ruggles |
| Screenplay by | Claude Binyon |
| Based on | Too Many Husbands 1919 play by W. Somerset Maugham |
| Produced by | Wesley Ruggles |
| Starring | Jean Arthur Fred MacMurray Melvyn Douglas |
| Cinematography | Joseph Walker |
| Edited by | William A. Lyon Otto Meyer |
| Music by | Friedrich Hollaender |
Production company | Columbia Pictures |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 84 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Too Many Husbands (released in the United Kingdom as My Two Husbands) is a 1940 romantic comedy film about a woman who loses her husband in a boating accident and remarries, only to have her first spouse reappear—yet another variation on the 1864 poem Enoch Arden by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. The film stars Jean Arthur, Fred MacMurray and Melvyn Douglas, and is based on the 1919 play Home and Beauty by W. Somerset Maugham, which was retitled Too Many Husbands when it came to New York.[1] The film was directed by Wesley Ruggles.
A couple of months after Too Many Husbands was released by Columbia, RKO put out a movie that was more popular both then and now, My Favorite Wife, a variation on the story with Cary Grant as the remarried spouse whose former wife Irene Dunne returns from sea. Too Many Husbands was remade as a musical, Three for the Show (1955), with Jack Lemmon and Betty Grable. My Favorite Wife came back yet again as Move Over, Darling (1963), with Doris Day and James Garner[2] after an uncompleted 1962 version entitled Something's Got to Give starring Marilyn Monroe and Dean Martin was aborted upon Monroe's abrupt death.
Synopsis[]
Vicky Lowndes (Jean Arthur) loses her first husband, Bill Cardew (Fred MacMurray), in a boating accident in which he is presumed drowned. The lonely widow is comforted by Bill's best friend and publishing business partner Henry Lowndes (Melvyn Douglas). Six months later, she marries him. Six months after that, Bill shows up, after having been stranded on a uninhabited island and then rescued. Vicky has a tough choice to make.
Cast[]
- Jean Arthur as Vicky Lowndes
- Fred MacMurray as Bill Cardew
- Melvyn Douglas as Henry Lowndes
- Harry Davenport as George, Vicky's father
- Dorothy Peterson as Gertrude Houlihan, Henry's secretary
- Melville Cooper as Peter, the Lowndes' butler
- Edgar Buchanan as Detective Adolph McDermott
- Tom Dugan as Lieutenant Sullivan
Nomination[]
John P. Livadary was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Sound Recording.[3]
See also[]
- My Favorite Wife, another 1940 film, in which it is the wife (played by Irene Dunne) who returns, just as her husband (Cary Grant) embarks on his honeymoon.
- Move Over, Darling, the 1963 remake of My Favorite Wife, starring Doris Day, James Garner, and Polly Bergen.
References[]
- ^ Mordden, Ethan (2007). All That Glittered: The Golden Age of Drama on Broadway, 1919–1959. New York: St. Martin's Press. p. 51. ISBN 978-0-312-33898-5.
- ^ http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/93595/Too-Many-Husbands/articles.html
- ^ "The 13th Academy Awards (1941) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. Retrieved 2011-08-13.
External links[]
- Too Many Husbands at IMDb
- Too Many Husbands at the TCM Movie Database
- Too Many Husbands at AllMovie
- Too Many Husbands at the American Film Institute Catalog
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- 1940 films
- English-language films
- 1940 romantic comedy films
- American films
- American romantic comedy films
- American black-and-white films
- Columbia Pictures films
- Comedy of remarriage films
- American films based on plays
- Films based on works by W. Somerset Maugham
- Films directed by Wesley Ruggles
- Films based on adaptations
- Films based on Enoch Arden
- Films scored by Friedrich Hollaender
- Romantic comedy film stubs