Diese Frau vergißt man nicht

Jane Wyman is beautiful and her wardrobe wonderful. Ray Milland seems out of place in this comedy - and I don't know who provides his singing voice. From the opening scene if you are a Cary Grant fan you will recognize it as the plot of "The Awful Truth", and the awful truth is - except for being in color and Ms. Wyman's clothes this remake falls sadly short of the chemistry and snap of the original. Aldo Ray played his best role in Pat and Mike and the casting director should have considered his accent before trying to make him out to be a back-woods boy. When music and dance are added to a plot to try to beef it up in some way it should serve as a red flag for viewer to beware.

Jane Wyman and Ray Milland star in this breezy musical comedy remake of the Cary Grant and Irene Dunne film, The Awful Truth. When Ray Milland tells his wife, he's going out of town, he's really playing the drums in dives all around town and jamming all night. But when he comes home early one morning (supposedly from Chicago) he finds her not there to greet him. She took the opportunity to teach him a lesson by going out and staying all night with a guy who has plans of his own. When she tells him the car broke down and they stayed at the Shady Nook motel in Feathersville, he doesn't buy it and suspects dilly-dallying. When the argument ensued and the trust was doubted, a divorce was settled on to end the marriage. Doesn't sound like a comedy, does it? Well, there are some songs, too, and Jane really puts on a show, while doing it. Even if her voice was dubbed, she was pretty convincing. I admit it's no classic like the original, but I enjoyed it and had some good belly laughs with its silliness towards the end. It seems a bit uneven with meandering here and there, but ultimately I think you will like its modest attempt of updating The Awful Truth with music.

In 1937, director directed a clever romantic-comedy, "The Awful Truth". It starred Cary Grand and Irene Dunne and the film was often wonderful--one of the better films of its type in the 1930s. Now, in 1953, the much less famous director Alexander Hall is given the unenviable task of doing the remake--with lesser actors in the leads and a lot of unnecessary singing and dancing tossed into the mix. Is there any possible way he could even come close to the original in quality or laughs? Well, the answer is an obvious NO--and I pretty much figured this out before the movie began. After all, the only reason to remake a movie is if the original was somehow seriously flawed and the remake corrected this. But the original was awfully good, so polished and featured amazing actors at their best--so how could Ray Milland and Jane Wyman hope to recapture the magic. Plus, the new script certainly isn't any better-in fact it's much worse (the film just didn't know when to end--and the final song by Wyman was god-awful). It seems that the one relatively minor flaw I saw in the original was still in this one...that the wife really did have reason to divorce because it's implied that the husband really WAS cheating on her. And, cheating is certainly NOT a subject that makes a film romantic. Now a misunderstanding causing the divorce, that probably would have worked better.

The bottom line is see the original and only see this remake if you are bored and there's nothing better on the television. Not a bad film--just an unnecessary one.

It's an agreeable novelty to see Jane Wyman and the young Aldo Ray dressed up to the nines in Technicolor in this otherwise ghastly fifties version with songs and sledgehammer musical cues of Arthur Richman's 1923 play (updated with jazz and references to uranium). But the initial shot of Ray Milland mugging furiously as he plays the drums at a jazz club doesn't bode well; and Milland looks understandably embarrassed throughout.

One's hopes are momentarily restored when an uncharacteristically glamorous Jane Wyman makes her first appearance poured into a sparkly Jean Louis gown with Gavin Elster on her arm; but are promptly dashed (and remain dashed) when she first bursts into song, excruciatingly followed a few minutes later by Milland!

And there's still over an hour to go; with just Valerie Bettis' exotic dancing worth staying awake for...

Recently seeing this movie for the first time I was pleased to find that it is a very pleasant,frothy technicolored entertainment.Jane Wyman,whom I remember mainly from TV,is a very capable comedienne,and a very good singer.She is obviously enjoying herself,and looks very good too,in a dazzling Jean Louis wardrobe.Ray Milland plays her ex-husband in a Cary Grant type performance,and warbles a song or two.Aldo Ray is the new beau and also shows what a versatile actor he was.All in all,an undemanding Technicolor treat that is typical of it's period.Worth catching.8/10