I am writing this review because after years of watching this movie and loving every minute of it, every time I watched it, I have just watched 'Move over Darling' for the first time and thought I'd write a review of both and compare them.<br /><br />Firstly this original and black and white version is so much better. Although the later film does have identical dialogue in parts and James Garner and Doris Day are great in the roles, they just do not to it as good as Cary Grant and Irene Dunne done...er did. For instance, the scene where Nicholas Arden first sees his wife in the hotel lobby and he follows the lift doors closing. Hilarious and Garner does it superbly, but that was a typical Cary Grant action and no-one can do it better.<br /><br />The film opens with Nicholas Arden (Grant), who having lost his wife to a shipwreck seven years ago, is filing his petition to get have his missing wife declared legally dead, so he can marry Bianca, a fox-clad beauty played by Gail Patrick.<br /><br />However, having happily made his vows and is all set to settle down with wife number two, wife number one, hilariously portrayed by Irene Dunne, makes an unexpected return from her shipwrecked paradise, determined to get her husband, life and home back.<br /><br />Grant now has to spend the rest of the movie realising that his one true love has returned and must find a kind, and considerate way to 'dump' his new bride.<br /><br />Add to his misery and torment, Grant's discovery that his wife has not been the lone shipwrecked victim these last seven years, but has been a jungle mate to a muscle bound Adonis played by Randolph Scott, news made worse by the fact that their affectionate nicknames for each other during that time seem to have been Adam and Eve.<br /><br />With such 'naked' truths scratching the surface, it's not long before Grant's trouble's really start as with two Mrs Ardens out and about, living, breathing, walking and talking, the authorities are starting to sit up and take notice. Bigamy is after all a crime.<br /><br />As with 1937's 'The Awful Truth' Grant and Dunne prove what a great comedic team they made and that their performances were by no means a fluke. It is also my opinion that Irene Dunne was a more natural comedienne than she was a singer...good voice though she had. She was just more of a joy to watch in these kind of roles, the opposite of her 1963 counterpart Doris Day, whom i always preferred as a singer.<br /><br />The one failing of both these films however is the character of Bianca, she is such a tragic figure when you think about it, she's neither nasty, vulgar, cruel, malicious or evil. Just a woman who loved a man enough to marry him, yet in both films she becomes a victim. Maybe she should have been written to be a gold-digger or a liar or a cheat, just so you don't feel so sorry for her. The Comedy can become a bit tainted and black as a result<br /><br />Anyway. A True classic and a great example of screwball comedy.