User Reviews

There seems to be little consensus on this movie; most people love it or hate it. I can see why. The movie has its golden gleaming moments, and then it has its moments that fall flat with a hollow thud. Unfortunately, the ending of the movie is the hollowest thud of all, and smacks almost of soap opera.

Also, Lombard hardly seems herself in this movie; she plays the foil to Montgomery's gleefully devilish protagonist, and only occasionally does she steal a scene. Hitchcock (or perhaps the screenplay) seems almost determined to keep her locked down. A pity.

Still, Montgomery's leering eyes and wicked yet boyish half-smile are by themselves reason enough to watch this movie. The whole issue of forbidden, illicit sex is handled beautifully, because, after all, the two are man and wife in everything but legal technicality. It seems odd that Lombard's character reacts with such savage anger about the whole thing. Considering the way she plays fast and loose with the affections of her husband's partner, even though she can't deny that she has been a common law wife of three years standing, one wouldn't expect such a prudish attitude from her. More likely, she would have joined her erstwhile husband in enjoying the hint of illicit passion. But it's best, in movies like this, not to examine the logic behind the story too closely.

Although Montgomery is the heart of the movie, nevertheless, perhaps the best scene in the movie is when the strait-laced genteel Gene Raymond proceeds from tipsy directly to dead-drunk and delivers possibly the funniest (because the most realistic) rendering of inebriation ever filmed. There's a point where he plants a foot on a step in front of him, a very low step, and one would think that in so doing he had just climbed Mount Everest. Priceless.

Others have noted, and I agree, that outside of Lombard, Montgomery and Raymond, the other characters are mere cardboard props and simply not funny. One can see that Hitchcock himself recognized this. When Raymond is closeted with his concerned parents in the bathroom at his office, the director is reduced to using gurgling plumbing sounds to punctuate the dialog--and for no apparent reason other than for some kind of comedic effect, because the dialog so clearly lacks any. When plumbing steals the show, you know you're in trouble.

One might see, in the trip to the rustic resort, an echo of Shakespeare's comedies, in which the scene always changed from the banal to the fantastical to underscore or even effect the transformation of the characters. But that doesn't happen here. Everyone continues to act the way they did before. That's not surprising, for in Shakespeare, the change in scene always happened at the beginning, not the end. You can't teach an old dog new tricks, and the personalities of the characters are engraved in marble by this point.

These scenes mark the final transition of a movie that was already verging on stage-bound into more or less just another play on celluloid. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it does little to revive the movie's already fainting comedic momentum. It attempts the usual farce, door-slamming, rushing to-and-fro, characters affecting dramatic poses, but it doesn't really work, and that devilish grin of Montgomery's seems long, long in the past. He becomes a cipher for the last part of the movie, Raymond's character was a cipher to begin with, and that leaves only Lombard, whose character was hemmed into a cage of shrewishness by the script (or the director) from the very beginning. The ending, therefore, is arbitrary and unsatisfying, and worst of all, not the least bit funny. The movie turns too late to pratfall comedy, and the image of Lombard tangled in skis simply doesn't work. She's been far too efficient and capable until now to be believable as the hapless, helpless, love-lorn buffoon.

Nevertheless, the movie was well worth watching. I'll never forget those gleaming eyes and that almost forward-leaning stride of Montgomery, as if he just couldn't wait to barrel into the next scene. One is almost tempted to forgive him his chumminess with the House Un-American Activities Committee.

Almost.

This film has nothing to do with the current film of the same title. Thank goodness for that! "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" is a rarity in that it was directed by that master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock. The film pays in ways that only a crafty Hitchcock would know how. The director takes Norman Krasna's screen play and gives it an elegant treatment.

The idea of a technicality annulling a marriage is at the center of the story. When David Smith is told about it, he sees the possibility of not telling his wife. Ann and David have a strange marriage life. They love each other dearly and they seem to work at maintaining their union as a fun enterprise where they are playful and do unexpected things to please one another. David miscalculates Ann's reaction to his playing a joke and not telling her about their new status.

The revelation at the beginning of the film is made known to Ann, who goes along with the joke expecting to be asked that same day to run to a justice of the peace to get married again. When David doesn't act on what for Ann seems to be essential, she flies into a rage and vows to get even with David. This is the basic premise of the comedy. Things get complicated, but we know all will be right at the end as Ann will come to her senses. David also is expected to legalize their status.

The film is a joy to watch because of the two stars. Carole Lombard and Robert Montgomery were two charismatic performers that had an uncanny sense of timing. They make a delicious couple that deserve to be happy, even at the expense of making each other crazy in the process. Just to see a playful Carole Lombard giving a razor shave to Robert Montgomery is well worth the prize of admission!

The rest of the cast is outstanding. Gene Raymond plays David's partner, Jefferson Custer, an upright man who admires Ann from a distance. Their scene when they get stuck in the rain at Coney Island's parachute, has to be one of the highlights of the movie. That whole sequence after they return to Jeff's apartment and he gets the "liquor" medicine from Ann is hilarious.

There is a cameo from the director that passes by too quickly and if the viewer is not paying attention, it will be missed. Jack Carson is excellent as the bad influence for David. Philip Mervale and Lucile Watson are seen as Jeff's parents.

This film proves Alfred Hitchcock could have tried his hand at more comedies because he seems to be a natural to the genre. Of course, any director was going to excel with Carol Lombard and Robert Montgomery playing the lead roles of any movie!

First: a warning.

I recently saw this movie on DVD in the Universal 'Hitchcock Collection' series. The source print looks to be in immaculate condition, but the image is a bit soft, suggesting it might be a second generation copy straight from video. The framing is far too tight, so all the compositions are terrible. Even the title of the movie is cropped. I gather from other IMDb reviews that there is a much better version available.

Mr and Mrs Smith is just a footnote to Hitchcock's career.

In his lengthy interviews with Francois Truffaut in the Sixties, Hitchcock gave a comprehensive overview of his whole body of work, but all he could say about this picture is that he did it as a favour to Carole Lombard and that he didn't understand the characters so just photographed Norman Krasna's screenplay.

In truth, there is not much more that needs to be said.

It is a screwball comedy out of the same mould as It Happened One Night, His Girl Friday and Philapdelphia Story. Carole Lombard is a typically feisty wife who learns that her marriage is technically invalid, falls out with with her husband on the flimsiest of pretexts and spends most of the picture being 'adorably' unreasonable.

Robert Montgomery does well enough as the put upon husband, but it is hard not to lose patience with him. Long before the end of the movie the audience is saying: "dump the silly cow, she's not worth it."

Gene Raymond plays the best friend with whom she becomes engaged. He is supposed to be a courtly, 'old family' Southerner, although this is not obvious from his accent and only really becomes apparent in the drunk scene (which he otherwise plays very well). He is an honourable, generous, teetotal gentleman, so of course he is bullied and patronised by Robert Montgomery and made the butt of many of the jokes - although he is not as badly treated as the similar Ralph Bellamy character in His Girl Friday.

This movie feels like it was made by people who only knew of screwball comedies by reputation, but hadn't actually seen one. For example, a good screwball comedy has a strong central idea with a number of on-going comic threads that continually intertwine and overlap. Here, all the comedy elements are just strung out, like beads on a necklace. This is screwball comedy by the numbers.

It is the same with the direction. Typically, these comedies race along at an ever increasing pace that rises to near hysteria by the end. Hitchcock doesn't get this. His direction is somewhat lethargic and the picture becomes a stately succession of scenes that all seem slightly over-written (but under-nourished) and slightly too long. He was never a particularly good director of actors so he just lets the cast get on with it. They do OK.

Hitchcock had a good sense of humour, which he frequently used in his thrillers, but he had no feel for comedy as a genre. His later Trouble with Harry was also a misfire, for similar reasons to this movie, but at least he was involved in that picture. Here he is just going through the motions.

All the people connected with this movie were good solid professionals so it is not especially bad. It just feels a bit derivative, over-familiar, over-long and ultimately rather flat.

Mr and Mrs Smith is one for Carole Lombard fans and Hitchcock completists only.