Too Many Husbands

Too Many Husbands (released in the United Kingdom as My Two Husbands) is a 1940 romantic comedy film about a woman who loses her husband in a boating accident and remarries, only to have her first spouse reappear—yet another variation on the 1864 poem Enoch Arden by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. The film stars Jean Arthur, Fred MacMurray and Melvyn Douglas, and is based on the 1919 play Home and Beauty by W. Somerset Maugham, which was retitled Too Many Husbands when it came to New York.[1] The film was directed by Wesley Ruggles.

Too Many Husbands
1940 theatrical poster
Directed byWesley Ruggles
Produced byWesley Ruggles
Screenplay byClaude Binyon
Based onToo Many Husbands
1919 play
by W. Somerset Maugham
StarringJean Arthur
Fred MacMurray
Melvyn Douglas
Music byFriedrich Hollaender
CinematographyJoseph Walker
Edited byWilliam A. Lyon
Otto Meyer
Production
company
Columbia Pictures
Distributed byColumbia Pictures
Release date
  • March 21, 1940 (1940-03-21)
Running time
84 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

A couple of months after Too Many Husbands was released by Columbia, RKO put out a movie that was more popular both then and now, My Favorite Wife, a variation on the story with Cary Grant as the remarried spouse whose former wife Irene Dunne returns from sea. Too Many Husbands was remade as a musical, Three for the Show (1955), with Jack Lemmon and Betty Grable. My Favorite Wife came back yet again as Move Over, Darling (1963), with Doris Day and James Garner[2] after an uncompleted 1962 version entitled Something's Got to Give starring Marilyn Monroe and Dean Martin was aborted upon Monroe's abrupt death.

Synopsis

Vicky Lowndes (Jean Arthur) loses her first husband, Bill Cardew (Fred MacMurray), in a boating accident in which he is presumed drowned. The lonely widow is comforted by Bill's best friend and publishing business partner Henry Lowndes (Melvyn Douglas). Six months later, she marries him. Six months after that, Bill shows up, after having been stranded on a uninhabited island and then rescued. Vicky has a tough choice to make.

Cast

Nomination

John P. Livadary was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Sound Recording.[3]

See also

References
  1. Mordden, Ethan (2007). All That Glittered: The Golden Age of Drama on Broadway, 1919–1959. New York: St. Martin's Press. p. 51. ISBN 978-0-312-33898-5.
  2. http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/93595/Too-Many-Husbands/articles.html
  3. "The 13th Academy Awards (1941) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. Retrieved 2011-08-13.
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