i do not know if this movie would strike today viewer a be so amuse . i mean and it still extremely amuse today and but in 1940 some of the subject that gag be build around be take more seriously . in middle america divorce be rare and for example . as late a 1964 one of the reason nelson rockefeller lose the republican nomination be that he have recently divorce and remarry . we do not have a divorced president until reagan and 16 year later . and at one point cary grant be send to gather some clothes for his wife and a psychiatrist see him examine the dress in her closet and posing in front of the mirror and hold up the dress in front of him and try on different woman hat . the suggestion of homosexuality and cross dressing must have be outrageous at the time . homosexuality be still the love that dare not speak it name and be think by everyone in bassett and nebraska and to be a mental disease those resident who have heard of it and anyway . the joke be build around a simple enough plot . grant and believe his wife ( dunne ) to have drown 7 year earlier in a shipwreck and remarries . but dunne show up vibrantly alive and have make it to an island . grant try to hide dunne identity from his bride while try to figure out what to do . halfway through the movie he discover that dunne be not alone when she be rescue from the island . also rescue be another survivor the robustly masculine and handsome and and athletic randolph scott and who be also in love with dunne . that remind me . when i say earlier that homosexuality be take seriously and i meant it . career could be ruin by rumor whole life could go down the drain . grant and scott happen to be pretty good friend and they share a house at the time this movie be be shoot . rumor begin that they be both gay and base on nothing more than their living in the same house . both career survive and but the rumor about scott lingers on . the great character in the movie be undoubtedly the judge and granville bates . what a crabby face . what an irritable and impatient man . someone in the courtroom open her compact and begin apply makeup and and the reflection of the light reach him . hey . put that thing away . what be you try to do and blind me . i would not have any of that in this courtroom . try wash your face instead of paint it . ( pause ) there such a thing a contempt of court and you know . ( pause ) don not let me get after you . the other great performance come from cary grant . nobody have ever be good at light comedy than grant and i swear . his every statement be funny . even his hesitation and like well and he use the skill he learn a an acrobat to add to his success . watch him scuttle across the balcony of the house with his wife dress and his legs work like a marionette while his head advance in a level line without bounce at all . it belong in the ministry of funny walk . randolph scott be good too in one of his freewheel earlier role . his chest be always puff out and his voice loud and resonant and his gesture flamboyant and everything that be deliberately drop from his late role in the boetticher westerns . i could never really get with irene dunne . i understand that she be a genuinely decent woman and but her on screen appeal eludes me . it a good thing that film last as long a it do and because they no longer make many comedy as successful a this one .