Cary Grant is Clemson Reade, an American on a business trip to a fictitious Middle Eastern country, Bukistan. He is there to sell oil-processing equipment to the reigning khan, played by Edward Franz. Back home, Reade is engaged to Miss Effington (Effie) who has a career in the U.S. State Department. Deborah Kerr's Effie is in the high ranks of the Middle East section. One can imagine where this story will go.
This 1953 MGM film was 20 years ahead of the oil "crises" of the 1970s that had a devastating effect around the world. But it gives a glimpse of the world of foreign relations and international business dealings. And, in this case, how they can overlap and interact with an amusing angle. The younger audiences of today may not know much about the cultural changes in society during the mid to late 20th century. So, things like male chauvinism and women's lib may be nothing more than something they've heard about from the past.
Well, this film clearly seems to poke fun at some customs of the time. And, it is an early jab at women's lib way before the movement became widespread more than a decade later. We see that in the early scenes when Reade returns to the U.S. With his arms full of packages at the airport a woman won't open the door for him, but another man does. Then, other men remove their hats when a woman enters an elevator. Reade fumbles his packages to remove his hat while the woman has a glare of indignation on her face. Then, there's something of a role reversal with Reade having to wait on Effie all the time as she has to work late and gets calls away from their dinner and evening out to go back to the office.
All of this seems to be juicy fodder for a very good comedy. And, with these two leads and Walter Pidgeon as Effie's State Department boss, Walter McBride, "Dream Wife" should have been a big hit. But it wasn't when it hit theaters in 1953, and it's not even mildly entertaining today.
This is clearly a case of a terrible screenplay that sinks a movie. Sometimes, the roles of actors will lift weak scripts to make fair movies. But in this case, the dull script is so bad and humorless that even Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr can't save the film. As other reviewers have noted, Grant seems to grow detached from the film as it goes along. In the early scenes he seems to strain to give a sense of comedy, as he is so adept at doing with his side-glances and facial expressions. This script is so bad it's hard to imagine the producers, directors and studio seeing any humor in it.
Others have noted that Grant was embarrassed by this poor film so much so that he didn't do another movie for two years and almost hung up his stage spurs. Thankfully, he didn't and we have some wonderful and great films with Cary Grant in the lead into the next decade. On everyone's list of most memorable love stories is Grant and Kerr's pairing for the 1957 blockbuster, "An Affair to Remember." They showed that they did have chemistry on film – if the screenplay was right.
This 1953 MGM film was 20 years ahead of the oil "crises" of the 1970s that had a devastating effect around the world. But it gives a glimpse of the world of foreign relations and international business dealings. And, in this case, how they can overlap and interact with an amusing angle. The younger audiences of today may not know much about the cultural changes in society during the mid to late 20th century. So, things like male chauvinism and women's lib may be nothing more than something they've heard about from the past.
Well, this film clearly seems to poke fun at some customs of the time. And, it is an early jab at women's lib way before the movement became widespread more than a decade later. We see that in the early scenes when Reade returns to the U.S. With his arms full of packages at the airport a woman won't open the door for him, but another man does. Then, other men remove their hats when a woman enters an elevator. Reade fumbles his packages to remove his hat while the woman has a glare of indignation on her face. Then, there's something of a role reversal with Reade having to wait on Effie all the time as she has to work late and gets calls away from their dinner and evening out to go back to the office.
All of this seems to be juicy fodder for a very good comedy. And, with these two leads and Walter Pidgeon as Effie's State Department boss, Walter McBride, "Dream Wife" should have been a big hit. But it wasn't when it hit theaters in 1953, and it's not even mildly entertaining today.
This is clearly a case of a terrible screenplay that sinks a movie. Sometimes, the roles of actors will lift weak scripts to make fair movies. But in this case, the dull script is so bad and humorless that even Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr can't save the film. As other reviewers have noted, Grant seems to grow detached from the film as it goes along. In the early scenes he seems to strain to give a sense of comedy, as he is so adept at doing with his side-glances and facial expressions. This script is so bad it's hard to imagine the producers, directors and studio seeing any humor in it.
Others have noted that Grant was embarrassed by this poor film so much so that he didn't do another movie for two years and almost hung up his stage spurs. Thankfully, he didn't and we have some wonderful and great films with Cary Grant in the lead into the next decade. On everyone's list of most memorable love stories is Grant and Kerr's pairing for the 1957 blockbuster, "An Affair to Remember." They showed that they did have chemistry on film – if the screenplay was right.