Leo McCarey may get the credit for discovering the comedy side of Grant in The Awful Truth, but here Hawks (in their first collaboration) guides him into completely unrecognisable screwball territory, in classic encounter of man vs. woman. It's Hawks - the woman wins.
The talking over each other (or barking or growling), the speed, gives it a wonderful memento.
The plot - Dudley Nichols from Hagar Wilde story - is a doozy.
Hepburn is also absolutely wonderful, as is Charlie Ruggles. With Walter Catlett, Barry Fitzgerald, May Robson, Fitz Feld and Skippy.
Can you believe it was a critical and commercial flop - when Peter Bogdanovich ran a Hawks retrospective in the sixties, it hadn't been shown in New York for twenty years. Hawks himself thought a problem with it was that every character was crazy, but you're laughing too much to notice.
Photographed by Russell Metty, music by Roy Webb, RKO.
Hawks also mentioned that the cheeky line when Grant's shielding her drawers "I feel a perfect ass" was missed by the censors as they were laughing too much.
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