Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1941)

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Starring Robert Montgomery, Carole Lombard, Gene Raymond, Jack Carson, Charles Halton, Philip Merivale, Lucile Watson, Esther Dale, William Tracy.

Faint but agreeable farce presents the titular married couple (Montgomery, Lombard) as a couple of quacks who don’t deserve fairy tale happiness, but ultimately deserve each other just because it’ll probably make them unhappy in the long run. Turns out that through a jurisdictional loophole, they’re not actually married, and after Montgomery takes too long proposing his intention to marry Lombard properly, she kicks him out and begins a tentative romance with her divorce lawyer (Raymond). A most atypical film for Hitchcock—he may be no stranger to comic relief in his pictures, but this out-and-out rom-com is screwball-adjacent and demands a masterful touch that he lacks in this frilly department. More dutiful than inspired, there are isolated laughs throughout, but it’s hard to get swept up in the restrained silliness, despite Lombard’s best efforts. Screenplay by Norman Krasna.

60/100