My Favorite Wife

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My Favorite Wife

film by Kanin [1940]

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Last updated

July 15, 2026

Quick Summary

The film My Favorite Wife, released in 1940, is an American screwball comedy starring Irene Dunne and Cary Grant. In the film, a married couple agrees to a divorce, only for the wife to reappear after five years, complicating their new relationships and leading to comedic situations as they attempt to reconcile.12

This film was a success and reunited Grant and Dunne, who had previously starred together in The Awful Truth (1937).12

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Rudolph Maté
Dallas (1937), Love Affair (1939), My Favorite Wife (1940), and Gilda (1946).
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Dallas (1937), Love Affair (1939), My Favorite Wife (1940), and Gilda (1946).
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Garson Kanin
Film directing
…1940 Kanin directed the comedy My Favorite Wife. The madcap farce marked the second screen pairing of Cary Grant and Irene Dunne, who gave memorable performances as a couple reunited when the wife is rescued after having been marooned for seven years on an island. Although My Favorite Wife was…
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…1940 Kanin directed the comedy My Favorite Wife. The madcap farce marked the second screen pairing of Cary Grant and Irene Dunne, who gave memorable performances as a couple reunited when the wife is rescued after having been marooned for seven years on an island. Although My Favorite Wife was…
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Leo McCarey
Middle years
…also cowrote the story for My Favorite Wife (1940), with Grant and Dunne. He was slated to direct it, but a near-fatal car crash forced him to hand the reins over to Garson Kanin, who turned it into a comic classic and one of 1940’s highest-grossing films.
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…also cowrote the story for My Favorite Wife (1940), with Grant and Dunne. He was slated to direct it, but a near-fatal car crash forced him to hand the reins over to Garson Kanin, who turned it into a comic classic and one of 1940’s highest-grossing films.
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