Madame exagère

Original title: Are Husbands Necessary?

1942
Approved
1h 19m

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

Ray Milland and Betty Field play a warring married couple who hope to patch up their differences by adopting a baby. When Milland's ex-flame Patricia Morrison shows up unexpectedly, the fur ... Read allRay Milland and Betty Field play a warring married couple who hope to patch up their differences by adopting a baby. When Milland's ex-flame Patricia Morrison shows up unexpectedly, the fur flies.Ray Milland and Betty Field play a warring married couple who hope to patch up their differences by adopting a baby. When Milland's ex-flame Patricia Morrison shows up unexpectedly, the fur flies.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

5.7/10

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

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Trivia
The main characters, George and Liz Cugat, were later adapted into the husband-and-wife comedy radio series "My Favorite Husband" starring Lucille Ball and Richard Denning. Both the radio plays and the movie were based on a novel by Isabel Scott Rorick.

Quotes
George Cugat: [she is seated at the bureau tossing papers on the floor] Liz!
Mary Elizabeth Cugat: Yes, dear?
George Cugat: Would you mind telling me what on earth you're doing?
Mary Elizabeth Cugat: It's my own system; first, you see, I file them.
George Cugat: You file them?
Mary Elizabeth Cugat: Yes, dear, here
[pointing at the floor]
Mary Elizabeth Cugat: Here I put the utilities, you know, the gas, light and phone. And I pay them first. You told me, substantial citizens always pay the utilities promptly. And then this pile are the second notices or "please remit at once's". You know how some people are. So, if there's anything left and of course if the budget permits, I pay the ones with the nastiest notes and I file the rest with the picture and this
[gesturing towards the floor]
Mary Elizabeth Cugat: I call this the sweetheart pile, because they're just nice little bills with no nasty "please remit at once's" or anything. And I just scoop them into the wastepaper basket and say "Goodbye till next month, sweethearts". See?
George Cugat: No, dear. I don't.
Mary Elizabeth Cugat: [tuts] Oh, I always feel kind dopey with a cold too.

Crazy credits
[prologue] Mr. and Mrs. Cugat - George and Liz to you - live right around the corner in that two-storey house. Like you and your brother-in-law and the fellow next door, they own their home, their car and their piano - all in partnership with the finance company .

Connections
Referenced in Miracle au village (1943)

Soundtracks
Who's Your Little Whoziz?
(uncredited)
Written by Walter Hirsch, Ben Bernie and Al Goering

User reviews4

Featured review

6/10

Depends On Who You Ask

Banker Ray Milland has a ditzy wife in Betty Field, but they adore each other. However, when Milland's old friends return to town, they include his old flame, Patricia Morison, and they way Milland and she behave makes Miss Field think she's about to lose her husband.

It's based on Isabel Scott Rorick's book MR. AND MRS. CUGAT; Xavier Cugat forced Paramount to change the movie's title, and then got some cash out of the company for retaining the names for the characters. There are plenty of amusing bits in the movie, aided by a cast that includes Eugene Pallette, Charles Dingle, Richard Haydn, and Ann Revere as the snippy and foreboding housemaid. If you think that there's something familiar about Miss Field's character, that's because the book was also the source of the radio show MY FAVORITE HUSBAND starring Lucille Ball and Richard Denning; the show was further adapted as the basis for I LOVE LUCY. I wonder if Miss Rorick got royalties from Desilu.