Indulging Cary Grant's odd passion in the comedies for remarrying his first wife and leaving a stodgy boyfriend (here, Ralph Bellamy) bemused and bereft, Leo McCarey allows Grant's fast-talking talents some ingenious turns in The Awful Truth. Irene Dunne, as the ex- and future wife, pulls some hilarious punchlines herself, posing as Grant's sister and horrifying a roomful of socialites (McCarey's favorite target) with an imaginative night-club 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. (JB)