Film

The Awful Truth

Name: The Awful Truth
Genre: Comedy, Romance
Released: 1937
Cast: Irene Dunne, Cary Grant, Ralph Bellamy, Alexander D'Arcy, Cecil Cunningham

A married couple, each convinced the other has strayed, file for divorce and then spend the interim sabotaging each other's rebound romances out of pure, unacknowledged jealousy. Directed by Leo McCarey with a loose, improvisatory feel, it's the film that essentially invented the modern screwball rhythm — fast, silly, and secretly tender. Perfect for anyone who wants proof that Cary Grant learned to be Cary Grant on this set.

TMDb rating

7.2

If you liked this

His Girl Friday1940

Grant again, this time trading barbs with Rosalind Russell at a speed that makes most modern comedy look like it's underwater. Same ex-spouses-still-in-love engine, cranked to eleven.

But The dialogue is so rapid-fire you may need a second watch to catch half the jokes.

Bringing Up Baby1938

Grant and Hepburn, a leopard, and total chaos — the anarchic cousin to The Awful Truth's more controlled comedy of remarriage. Pure, escalating farce.

But It's broader and sillier; if you liked the wit here, the slapstick there might feel like a lot.

The Philadelphia Story1940

Grant plays the ex-husband circling a wedding he's not invited to, with Hepburn and Stewart in top form. Sharper-edged, more emotionally layered take on the same territory.

But It's talkier and more concerned with class and reputation than pure comic momentum.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Marriage Story2019

Both films are structured around a divorcing couple who sabotage each other's new relationships because they haven't actually let go — one plays it as delight, the other as grief.

The same engine — a couple undoing a marriage while still plainly loving each other — run entirely straight, and it will wreck you in ways The Awful Truth never intends to.

But There is no comic safety net here; the fights are raw and the pain is real, not farcical.

My Man Godfrey1936

A butler with secrets upends a spoiled family's household — the same giddy disregard for propriety, with a wilder streak of social satire underneath the laughs.

But The screwball family here is more grotesque than charming, which some find harder to warm to.

It Happened One Night1934

The original template for bickering-into-love, with Gable and Colbert on a road trip that invents half the genre's tricks along the way.

But It's gentler and more earnest than The Awful Truth's cattier, more knowing tone.

Adam's Rib1949

Married lawyers on opposite sides of a courtroom case, trading jabs at home and in front of a judge. Same marital gamesmanship, dressed up as legal drama.

But The courtroom plot slows things down compared to the pure momentum of a farce.

Holiday1938no page yet

Grant and Hepburn again, this time about a man who'd rather quit his fortune than his freedom — quieter, warmer, still very funny.

But It trades manic energy for something gentler and more reflective; don't expect the same sparring pace.

Ball of Fire1941

A stuffy professor and a gangster's moll collide in a comedy about propriety cracking under attraction — Barbara Stanwyck is glorious.

But The slang-heavy setup dates it more visibly than some other titles on this list.

The Lady Eve1941

Stanwyck runs a long con on Henry Fonda, then falls for her own mark — devious, stylish, and just as fast-talking as anything McCarey made.

But The con-artist plotting is more elaborate and less about marital reconciliation specifically.

Scener ur ett äktenskap1973

Same subject — a couple circling divorce, still entangled, still jealous — but stretched into a slow, unsparing television format instead of a breezy ninety minutes.

Bergman's miniseries dissects a marriage's slow unraveling in intimate, almost unbearably close conversations — the forensic version of the same jealousy and reconciliation The Awful Truth turns into a game.

But It's Swedish, six hours long, and built on sustained two-person dialogue with almost no plot momentum.

Gaslight1944

Where The Awful Truth plays marital suspicion for laughs and a happy ending, Gaslight imagines the same doubt weaponized into something genuinely dangerous.

Takes the 'unfounded suspicion within a marriage' premise and drains every drop of comedy from it, becoming a genuinely frightening portrait of manipulation.

But It's a slow-building psychological thriller, tense rather than funny, and the marriage on screen is toxic, not just mismatched.