ReaderKenka Let's be realistic.

AutCuddly Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

Matho The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

Paynbob It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Prismark10 There is a reason why Hitchcock was known as the Master of Suspense and not the Master of Romantic Comedy. This film is proof of this, his only romantic comedy which he directed on the behest of the star Carole Lombard. Hitchcock later admitted he did not really understand the characters so just followed the screenplay.Ann (Carole Lombard) and David Smith (Robert Montgomery) are a married couple in New York. He is a well to do lawyer but although the couple are in love they bicker a lot. One morning, Ann asks David if he would marry her again if he had it to do over again. He replies he would not even though he is very happy with her.Well would you believe it later that day David is informed by a state official that due to a mishap they were never legally married. However this leads to a series of misunderstandings that drive the couple apart and she goes to the arms of his law partner who ends up proposing to her.The trouble with the film is that it fails as a screwball comedy and becomes increasingly tedious as the movie progresses and the couple keep on arguing. Although David said he would not marry Ann again he the spends the entire time conniving her to marry her again while she plays hard to get.

classicsoncall Well this one's a puzzler. My instincts tell me this movie was supposed to be a comedy but nothing in the delivery convinced me that was the case. Seeing Hitchcock's name as director in the opening credits also added to my quandary. Not known for comedy in general, Hitch would often use humor and light touches in his dramatic films, but even that seemed to be absent here. The picture just didn't work for me. Maybe if Cary Grant had the lead here opposite someone like Ann Sheridan or Rosalind Russell (See "His Girl Friday"), they might have pulled it off. The film needed a lot more energy than what was provided by the principals here.The main problem I guess I have is with Carole Lombard's character, Annie Krausheimer Smith. In the early going she managed to bother me with her clingy attachment to husband David (Robert Montgomery), but then when the story's reveal occurred about their 'non-marriage', she went totally in the opposite direction. Had the couple any sort of chemistry to begin with they might have made the situation work to comedic effect, but the whole time I was waiting for it, the humor never materialized.I did have one sit up and take notice moment though. How about that scene where Jeff Custer's (Gene Raymond) father called Annie 'white trash'! Wow, was that the first time the term was ever used in a movie? I had that term pegged as a more recent colloquialism and here it turns out to be at least seventy five years old! Well I'm generally in the minority on most of Hitchcock's directorial efforts. Notwithstanding the man's reputation as one of the best, I usually encounter something that just doesn't click with me in a lot of his pictures. On that score, most everything didn't click with me here, and I'm tempted to say that there's probably more humor in the 2007 movie of the same name starring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. And in that one, they're a pair of assassins!

painter_timescapes This is the best Carole Lombard film I've seen. She shows a range of talent. Her timing and delivery are excellent.The male lead is a bit weaker, he doesn't seem like good romantic lead really. No real sex appeal, he didn't phone in his performance but he didn't bring his best performance either. He was pretty much a cardboard cutout. He was badly miscast with Lombard.Lombard's character has that brilliance, vivaciousness to have any man yet she's stuck with a mediocre character actor.The dialogue is good and flows well.Hitchcock doesn't do comedy very well so Lombard saves this movie.The supporting cast was OK.Production values were typical mid-budget studio.The cinematography was adequate.Overall, I'll watch this film again just to watch Carole Lombard give a really good performance. She is better here than in "My Man Godfrey".

Ilpo Hirvonen Comedy and romance have always been an integral part of Alfred Hitchcock's oeuvre. His humor is usually distinctly black but always essential and associated with the context of the story. However, one of Hitchcock's most hated pictures "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" is an exception in this, as comedy isn't a mere subtext, for the film is style-wise a pure screwball comedy. In the hands of any other director, the story would have gathered warm romantic tone but in Hitchcock's grip it reveals its cynic nature. This is partially due to Hitchcock's moral honesty. His uncompromising reluctance to embellish cruelty. Hitchcock is always celebrated as "the master of suspense" and as the great teller of crime stories. But the crimes committed in "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" are of different nature. For they are precisely crimes of passion because they are aimed at pride, dignity and, in the worst case, love. In the 1960's, Hitchcock told Truffaut that he only made the film as a favor to Carole Lombard. In his own words, he only filmed what was said in the screenplay. In reality, however, the film has a lot of characteristic elements of Hitchcock's distinct style, wit and world view. The first scene, for example, is a brilliant expression of personal anguish in dysfunctional married life, introducing the film's satirical nature.Although the film is a lightweight comical comment on modern marriage, a dark variant beats beneath the surface. A constant emotion of the decomposition of love reigns. For its personal portrayal of marriage "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" is related to Hitchcock's other works, such as "Rich and Strange", in which the illusion of money and the silence of love are dominant themes, and "Suspicion" where marriage includes a strong shadow of doubt and distrust. For Hitchcock, marriage seems to be a normative institution, controlled by money and monitored by the community, which leaves no room for real emotions. It is as if all marital action was based on cheat, deceit and oppression. The Smiths, for example, are instantly ready to divorce after hearing about a legal error -- their marriage was never verified -- because there had been no real feelings whatsoever for years. A mere technicality held the unsteady edifice of love together. Later on, the film warms up a little as the cool cynicism of the beginning settles. However, the pessimistically realist mood remains as an echo, a subtext, until the very end.In the field of narrative, Hitchcock continues to develop the sensation of anxiety, presented in the opening tracking shot, by using poignant identification. In American comedy, objective observation is often used by filmmakers (screwball is a "report of madness", so to speak) but Hitchcock prefers to stick to the subjective perspective. It's crucial that he never alienates events, gags nor characters. As a consequence of this, the jokes never amuse the people to whom they are aimed at.