Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1941)

After three years of marriage, an attorney (Robert Montgomery) discovers that he and his wife (Carole Lombard) aren't legally married. When he doesn't immediately offer to remarry her, she throws him out of their apartment and refuses his attempts to reconcile. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock in only his third film made in America following REBECCA and FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT, this screwball comedy is outside the scope of the traditional Hitchcock film. There is no suspense, no murder and Hitchcock always claimed he only did the film as a favor to Lombard. That aside, as an out and out comedy, it's not bad at all. In fact, I suspect that it's because the Hitchcock name is attached that the movie is usually dismissed as a lesser effort when compared to his justifiably praised classics. It has a certain charm and there are several laugh out loud moments scattered through out the film like Montgomery's paranoia about the cat not eating the soup or his embarrassing encounter in a nightclub when Lombard spots him with a less than classy dame. But as pleasant a diversion as it is, it's no THE AWFUL TRUTH which it resembles. With Gene Raymond (surprisingly good in the Ralph Bellamy role), Jack Carson and Lucile Watson.