June 21 movie: My Favorite Wife. Seven years after Irene Dunne's disappearance at sea, her husband Cary Grant has her declared dead so he can remarry. That very day, Dunne returns from the dead. Dun-dun!
I thought I loved this movie, but when I sat down to watch it I remembered what I don't like: the reprehensible way Grant treats his second wife, Gail Patrick. Patrick does a valiant job of making the character so unlikeable that the audience won't mind seeing her totally humiliated. Unfortunately it doesn't change the fact that she's a victim who never did anything wrong, and is treated like dirt from beginning to end.
The only acknowledgement of how unfair this is comes near the end, when Patrick bloodies Grant's nose and Dunne tells him, "you did have it coming." Grant seems to treat the bloody nose as a small price to get rid of the shrieking harpy, who he had promised to love and cherish three days before.
Okay, I'm getting myself worked up. Let this write-up serve as a reminder to me, not to watch this movie again.
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