Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An Overlooked Gem, August 22, 2000
Alfred Hitchcock directed Mr. and Mrs. Smith as a favor to Carole Lombard (he was renting her home after she married Clark Gable) in this sophisticated comedy. Ann (Lombard) and David Smith (Robert Montgomery) star as a wealthy Manhattan couple who engage in some prolonged marital squabbles because they have agreed to keep themselves locked up in their bedroom until the matters are resolved. Some battles have kept them holed up for over a week at a time. After making up from one of these fights, Ann asks David if given the chance to go back in time would he marry her again. He answers that he wouldn't even though he loves her very much. David thinks that married life is too complicated. Before you know it, a man enters David's law office to inform him that due to a technicality, he and Ann are not married. David wants to keep this news a secret from Ann for a while, but she finds out anyway. Ann thinks that David is planning to propose all over again, waiting for the perfect romantic moment, but he doesn't. This causes Ann to kick David out of their beautiful New York City apartment declaring that she's not sure she loves him anymore. When Ann starts dating, David begins in earnest to win her back. But not after he spends some hilarious days at his club where he meets an old business associate, played by Jack Carson, who encourages David to go out on a double date with him. Montgomery's scenes at the supper club are pure comic genius. In these scenes alone, he proves his status as one of the greatest comic performers in film. All hell breaks lose when Ann starts dating David's partner, played by Gene Raymond. When David finds out that his partner and old college buddy is squiring his wife, he redoubles his efforts at getting Ann back. This is probably one of the oddest films in the Hitchcock canon because it is completely lacking in what we have come to expect from his movies. There is no violence, no real suspense, no mystery, no crazy mothers ruining their sons' lives, and so on. But taken on its own merits, it is a completely enjoyable film, which reminds us what wonderful comic talents Lombard and Montgomery were and how the likes of which we are unlikely to see again. With witty dialogue, great pacing and acting, including terrific character bits by Carson and Lucile Watson as Lombard's mother. Produced in 1940 and released in 1941, this film has some footage of New York during the time of the 1939 World's Fair. In fact Lombard and Raymond go to the Fair after a dinner date. This really isn't minor Hitchcock, but it isn't what you've come to expect from the master of suspense. Perhaps he was trying to prove (early on too) that he was also the master of any film project he decided to take on. If you love the screwball comedies of the 1930s and early 1940s, give this one a look.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"Look at that cat. He won't even touch it.", April 3, 2006
This breezy and sophisticated marital romp from the pen of Norman Krasna has a stunningly beautiful Carole Lombard in her prime and a funny performance from Robert Montgomery to make it topflight entertainment. Montgmery, who starred in many sophisticated comedies during the 1930's and discovered a new career when noir came along in the 1940's is marvelous here, matched only by the wonderful Lombard.
Alfred Hitchcock took this film because it was a chance to work with her, and the results are fabulous. This film ranks right up there with "The Awful Truth" but is not mentioned nearly as often, perhaps because Hitchcock was involved. That is a real shame indeed. As marital farces on film go, this one is as enjoyable as any.
Lombard simply glows as the adoring but volatile wife of lawyer Robert Montgomery, who spends more time follwing her rules for a perfect marriage than he does at the office. When it is discovered that their union in Idaho actually crossed a county line into Nevada and is not legal, Montgomery thinks it will be fun to have a mistress for one evening before telling her, but soon discovers differently when it backfires in his face! While Lombard gets a job and starts dating her husband's business partner, Montgomery gets some advice from a funny Jack Carson on how to get her back and spends the rest of the film trying to make her his Valentine-- or else!
There are some hilarious scenes in Krasna's script played perfectly by Lombard and Montgomery. Montgomery's obsession with a bowl of soup even the cat won't eat will have you laughing out oud, as will Lombard's pretending his old buddy is with her in the cabin in Lake Placid next to Montgomery; who has, of course, followed her there, faking injury to keep an eye on her. Perhaps the funniest moment here, however, comes when Montgomery tries to give himself a bloody nose so he can squirm out of a date. It will have you rolling on the floor!
This is another great RKO classic and one of the director's best. While it perhaps runs out of steam a bit late in the film, a terrific ending reminiscent of Gregory La Cava's "Fifth Avenue Girl" with Ginger Rogers makes it all worthwhile. Montgomery is absolutely superb and Lombard, dressed in gowns by Irene, is as beautiful as she is funny. Lombard and Montgomery are a match made in Hollywood heaven and you don't want to miss this one.
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10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Queen of Screwball Comedy in Fine Hitchcock Film..., May 27, 2005
Mr. & Mrs. Smith is a very different kind of film compared to Alfred Hitchcock's other films. The first obvious difference that strikes the audience is the absence of murder or other wicked elements. Instead Hitchcock created a comedy with Carole Lombard whom he held in high esteem. Lombard made several great films during the 1930s among these My Man Godfrey (1936), unfortunately she passed away in a plane crash at the age 33. Nonetheless, she left the world with a number of wonderful performances one of which can be seen in Mr. & Mrs. Smith while leaving the legacy of being the queen of screwball comedy for people to reminiscence.
The camera captures a hotel room with several dirty plates with half eaten deserts and meals in the beginning of the film while slowly panning towards an rough looking David Smith (Robert Montgomery) who is playing solitaire. It is obvious that David tries to silently squander some time while waiting for his wife Ann (Carole Lombard) to get up from the bed. David studies Ann who has cocooned herself with the blanket, as he knows that she is pretending to sleep. Simultaneously, room service knocks on the door with breakfast. Ann peaks out from under the blanket when David receives the breakfast, but rolls over to overtly express her silent contempt for some unknown reason. Her husband, on the other hand, seems to be used to this, as he merely picks up his breakfast and silently moves away from her in order to let her calm down.
The opening set up displays Hitchcock's ingenious story telling technique, as he creates intrigue and a clear beginning of the film. In addition, the framing and mise-en-scene are exceptional throughout the film, which helps enhance the messages in the film. Several different notions can be deduced from this scene such as that they are married, there is tension between them, and both expect one another to be able to do the right thing without communication. Yet, Ann and David find a way to fix the quarrel between them, which has gone on for three days. This suggests that they took the ceremony when they said, "until death do us part", very seriously, as they work things out.
Shortly after the opening, Hitchcock displays an interesting scene where Ann shaves David. It displays tremendous trust that David has for Ann, as she carefully shaves him with a sharp blade. Maybe this could draw some suggestive thoughts to the shower scene in Psycho of what could happen, if she still was angry with him. However, this is a comedy and it will not happen, yet the idea still lingers in the mind for those who have seen other Hitchcock films. Instead, Ann talks about faithfulness, honesty, and other decent concepts that generate a healthy marriage. In the following scene Ann warms her feet against David's legs. Those who have a significant other might recognize themselves in this amusing scene when Ann asks David if he would marry her, if they would do the whole thing over again. David responds that he would not, as he wants to be honest with Ann. Consequently, Ann removes her feet from David's warm legs.
As the story unfolds, David and Ann find out that their marriage is invalid by human error. This leads the film into an interesting journey with role reversal in regards to David's previous comment at the breakfast table. Shrewdly, Hitchcock depicts his comic tale in the light of the current, 1940s that is, society's perceptive of a proper marriage and decent living. The film also illustrates how unbalanced women's rights were at the time, as Ann tries to make a living by herself. This is interesting, as Carole Lombard was very progressive and active for her own right, as she was aware of the male dominating film industry. She even managed to get herself top salaries, which at the time paid her as much as $35,000 per week. Consequently, Hitchcock's attempt to make a comedy received mixed opinions, but the film itself offers a solid cinematic experience with both humor and social concepts that should be pondered.
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