Mr. and Mrs. Smith (1941)

Film: Mr. and Mrs. Smith (1941)

Stars: Carole Lombard, Robert Montgomery, Gene Raymond, Jack Carson

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

Oscar History: No nominations

Snap Judgment Ranking: 4/5 stars

Each month, as part of our 2021 Saturdays with the Stars series, we highlight a different one Alfred Hitchcock's Leading Ladies.  This month, our focus is on Carole Lombard-click here to learn more about Ms. Lombard (and why I picked her), and click here for other Saturdays with the Stars articles.

Last week we discussed Carole Lombard's sojourn into more dramatic pictures with Vigil in the Night, one of several attempts Lombard made from 1939-40 to win an Academy Award.  Lombard, though, didn't take that Oscar & the public didn't appreciate her in such a role, so she went back to making comedies.  This, weirdly enough, led her to Alfred Hitchcock.  Hitchcock had initially wanted to direct Lombard in a dramatic picture, something that would be inline with what she'd been attempting, but Lombard wanted a comedy.  The result is one of the Master of Suspense's most unusual films.  While Hitch oftentimes would put black humor into his films, this is a straight-up romantic comedy with very little hinting on either side of the conversation of something more macabre, and wasn't the film that Hitchcock wanted to make (he was dismissive of the picture in later years).  It is, however, a very good movie, and a solid showcase for Lombard & Robert Montgomery as the leads.

(Spoilers Ahead) This is not, for the record, a precursor to the Brad Pitt/Angelina Jolie film (which I like, btw-that's a guilty pleasure movie).  It is instead the story of Ann (Lombard) and David (Montgomery), a couple who have been married for a bit, and while they love each other, bicker constantly.  One morning, David tells Ann over breakfast rather nonchalantly that he wishes they'd never gotten married, because he misses his independence.  David gets his wish, finding out that due to a quirk in Idaho law (where they wed) they didn't actually legally get married.  Ann finds out about this as well, but realizes that David isn't going to tell her (and perhaps make her a "bad girl" by sleeping together while they aren't married), and kicks him out of their house.  Ann then decides to start dating other people, with David attempting to win her back by getting her fired from her new job (allowing for no financial independence) and trying to bust up her relationship with his former friend Jeff (Raymond).  Things come to a head when the three of them are trapped at a ski lodge together, and they realize that despite their constant bickering, they love each other, and the film ends happily.

The movie is charming, and winning mostly because of the two leads.  I give-or-take on Robert Montgomery for the most part, but apparently love him in 1941 between this and Here Comes Mr. Jordan (both of which I thoroughly enjoyed).  He definitely plays his part well here as a man who doesn't realize that he batted out-of-his-league on the first go, and thinks that the grass is greener (when it isn't).  This is shrewd direction from Hitch/Montgomery, capturing the essence of such a man who we can tell from the outside got a good deal, and it's wonderfully underlined by Lombard.  Our star plays this well, reminding not only David but also herself that she's worthy of love, and can get a life beyond herself if she wants...even if she really does just want David.  Filled with lovely comic set-pieces & fun back-and-forth, Mr. and Mrs. Smith is a winner & makes you wonder what would've happened if Hitchcock had made more comedies in his later years.

The film, tragically, would be the last movie starring Lombard to be released in her lifetime.  She would make one more movie (the classic To Be or Not To Be), before her death.  On January 16, 1942, Lombard, her mother, and press agent, were coming home from a war bonds fundraising event, when the plane crashed into the side of a mountain outside of Las Vegas, killing everyone on board.  Her husband Clark Gable was bereft when he realized his wife had died, and though he'd remarry twice after her, he would end up buried next to her when he died some two decades later.  Joan Crawford replaced Lombard in the last film she'd been scheduled to make, They All Kissed the Bride, and gave her entire salary to the Red Cross in honor of their work in the aftermath of Lombard's death, and her final movie To Be or Not To Be had to be edited (to great expense) to cut one line from the film where Jack Benny proclaims "What could happen on a plane?", an eerie query in conjunction with Lombard's tragic death.  Carole Lombard, a screen legend & one of the best of her era, was only 33 when she died.

Next month, we're going to jump a little bit out of chronology into the 1950's (we'll do one more of Hitch's 1940's leading ladies in July but because of the depth of her career I wanted a month with five Saturday's, which June doesn't have), so we'll instead move to an actress that jumped from genre-to-genre throughout the 1940's, but ended up finding her footing later in her career with two massive Best Picture nominees that would seal her stardom.  We'll find out who that is on Tuesday!