The Awful Truth indulges Cary Grant's odd passion in the comedies for remarrying his first wife and leaving a stodgy boyfriend (often, as here, Ralph Bellamy) bemused and bereft; it also allows his fast-talking talents some ingenious turns. Irene Dunne as the ex- and future wife pulls some hilarious punches herself, posing as Grant's sister and horrifying a roomful of socialites (Leo McCarey's favorite target) with an imaginative nightclub act. The Awful Truth was McCarey's first and last film for Columbia and Harry Cohn, who had little faith in McCarey's improvisational technique and so lost for future farces the director of what turned out to be an enormously successful film.