Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Too much of everything

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

Alfred Hitchcock directed this comedy(unusual for him) that stars Robert Montgomery and Carole Lombard as David & Ann Smith, who have been happily married for three years until they one day have an argument about their marriage, then(by one of those standard movie coincidences) learn that day that, because of a dispute between local and state jurisdictions, their marriage license is invalid, meaning they are no longer legally married! This causes them to separate for a time, dating other people, until they realize the obvious about each other... Despite the cast and director, this is a contrived and predictable film, and not especially funny, though well made. A trifle.

Despite some neat touches, this Carole Lombard feature proves that Alfred Hitchcock was right to stay in the suspense thriller rather than screwball comedy genre. Not that some of his best films don't feature some arch humour (think "The 39 Steps" or "The Lady Vanishes" but a Hitchcock film devoid of thrills is like a bird without wings, in other words it won't fly.The storyline is typical of its type, a married couple learn that by a fluke they aren't actually married and before you know it are frantically competing to make the other jealous, Lombard even threatening to marry "husband" Montgomery's best pal and business partner, played by Gene Raymond, before it all unsurprisingly resolves itself happily ever after for the would-be warring couple. There are some likable things in the movie, the nice use of locations such as a pizzeria, funfair and snow lodge, some typically coarse directorial humour over the dining table, Miss Lombard's effervescent performance and some minor directorial flourishes from Hitchcock, like the on-high shot on the fun-fair's big-wheel ride or the last scene when Lombard surrenders back to Montgomery, oddly prescient of Grace Kelly's murder scene in the years later "Dial M For Murder", but on the whole the movie lacks sparkle or even a spark.Montgomery just moons about and Raymond's character for all he's trying to steal his best friend's girl is very bland,a mummy and daddy's boy, leaving Lombard to try to carry the movie on her own, but it's beyond both her and Hitchcock's talents and more or less plods along to its predicable conclusion.As a Hitchcock fan, I was intrigued to see a film of his I'd not seen before, but in truth, there was little to identify it as one by the Master and it's not one I'll be returning to anytime soon.

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.

This screwball comedy has a naughty little premise behind it. A man discovers he isn't legally married and decides not to tell his wife. He'd rather be with her as if she were his mistress and have sex without the benefit of marriage. He finds the idea to be thrilling and exciting. Why he does isn't addressed. Perhaps the idea of defying society's conventions, or maybe the idea of gaining more power over his wife; a man can easily dump a mistress at any time; a wife, there's a long, messy divorce to deal with. Also, there's the sexual element behind it too; presumably sex with a mistress is more thrilling than sex with a wife.The wife finds out and dumps the husband for trying to turn her into that kind of woman. She dates his law partner, a true Southern gentleman who's entirely prim and proper and would never think of touching a woman before marriage. In the end, the wife finds their relationship unfulfilling, especially when he does not resort to violence to protect her honor. She dumps him and turns back to her hubby, a "real man." It's interesting that the movie ends with the husband getting exactly what he wants, sex with his wife before marriage. In effect, despite his wife's long protest, he wins; he now takes her as his mistress. This is a sex comedy where the man entirely gets his way; his sex dream is realized.Questions this film asks: does one really have to wait for marriage to have sex? Is it better to have a wife or a mistress? The film also offers insight into the different social standards of the higher and lower class, especially in the scene at the upscale nightclub where Montgomery is embarrassed to be with low-brow Jack Carson and the two low-brow dames Carson brings with him.Overall, the cast is good, though the three principles all show signs of premature aging. It's interesting to watch movies of the early 40s and see what's become of stars from the late 20s and early 30s. Some are still stars, like Montgomery and Lombard. Others are fading to character status like Gene Raymond. He's almost unrecognizable in dyed black hair as the type of character Ralph Bellamy plays so well in films like "The Awful Truth" and "His Girl Friday"; it's a far cry from Raymond's leading man days of the early 1930s. Saddest of all is to see what happened to another leading lady of the late 20s, Betty Compson. A star from the great 1928 film "The Docks of New York," she's truly unrecognizable here as the beat-up, low-class hag Gertie.Norman Krasna's script is serviceable, with a number of truly funny lines and scenes, mostly avoiding the sort of cliché-riddled, unfunny, idiotic cuteness that makes the 1943 film "Princess O'Rourke" so intolerable, a film for which Krasna inexplicably won the Academy Award for best screenplay. The first half of the film is the best half, before the focus shifts to Lombard and the boring Raymond. Hitchcock is serviceable too, though anyone could have directed this film. Obviously, Hitch didn't have the gift of an Ernst Lubitsch when it came to sex comedies. Neither did anyone else, and at least Hitch here makes no pretense as to having the "Lubitsch touch," unlike Billy Wilder, who failed numerous times in trying to recreate it, in movies like "Sabrina"(1954). "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" does deal with some domestic themes that Hitch is particularly fond of though, namely the battle of the sexes and the husband getting his way in the end.