Clearly, this movie is screwball comedy. It has all the elements of the standard definition. The domineering female who challenges the man's virility. The fast and witty dialog with rejoinders and clever ripostes. The farcical scenes and antics. "Double Wedding" veers off in places, and seems to chop off scenes with poor segue. But, these few instances that might be faults in any other film, fit perfectly with the zaniness of this movie. This is among the best screwball comedies and it rates 10 stars for laughter. The ending is one of the funniest, zaniest scenes of mayhem and pratfalls I can think of from any film.
All of the cast have outstanding roles. The sets, filming and other technical aspects are very good. The IMDb Web site gives the plot and other reviewers discuss it and the script. I'll just give some of the funny lines and history on the delay in the film's completion. Myrna Loy's role is one of her biggest dialogs in her pairings with William Powell. And this may be her funniest role ever.
Loy's Margit Agnew delivers persiflage at will toward Powell's Charles Lodge. She calls his living style, "adolescent Bohemianism." Her many put-downs leave one chuckling long after the film is over. And, she has one line, consisting of 81 words, which may be the hardest line that any actor has ever had to memorize. It's a gibberish genealogy she recites to Mrs. Bly, about the young man chosen to marry her sister, Irene.
Margit, "Waldo's a sort of distant relative of ours. Mother, you know, was a Leslie. The son of her brother, Edward Leslie, married one of the Boyer girls, Anne Boyer. Anne's sister Hermione married Steve Carroll, divorced Steve and married Elmer Beaver who had three brothers, Andrew, Paul and Alexander. Andrew was married twice. His first wife was a Brewster. His second wife was the widow of Morton Thomas, nee Caroline Cook. Andrew and Caroline were the parents of Waldo. Get it?" Mrs. Bly, "Nope!" Obviously, a viewer wouldn't be able to get it either - to write it down like this, without DVD technology. This must be the longest silly genealogy recitation in filmdom.
Here are some favorite lines. For more humorous dialog, see the Quotes section under this IMDb Web page on the movie.
Irene Agnew (played superbly by Florence Rice) to Charles, "You just don't understand her. She's different form you and me. She's a businesswoman. We're Bohemians." Waldo (played very well by John Beal), "Why do Bohemians have to stay up all night?"
Mrs. Kensington-Bly (played excellently by Jessie Ralph), "It begins to look more and more like a hothouse." Margit, "Or a nut house."
Charlie, "I was a professional guide in Paris at the time. I used to show people through the sewers." Margit, "I can think of no one better qualified."
Judge Blynn (played wonderfully by Donald Meek), "Would the bride and gloom please join hands." (sic)
Waldo, "To know Charlie is to love him. He's got yumpf." Irene, "He's got a monopoly on it."
Margit, "You were the best (police detective) on the force, Keough?" Keough, "Yes, Miss Agnew." Margit, "My, my! How we all missed being killed in our sleep."
Margit, "You dissolute, conceited....uh, vagrant." Charles, "Did you hear what she called me? A vagrant."
Charlie, "Did you want to talk about something?" Margit, "Yes. Do you take dope?"
Waldo, "He thinks everybody ought to live in an auto-trailer." Margit, "Oh, he does?" Waldo, "Yes, he calls it the covered wagon of the future."
Margit, "Oh, you're the most revolting, cheap, four-flushing..."
Charlie, "Who rang that gong?" Margit, "I did." Charlie, "Oh but you mustn't. It's for the telephone."
Margit, "Check the lunatic asylums. He's probably missing from one of them."
Charlie, "People often say what they mean when they're out of their mind."
Waldo, "Well, I'd like a shower." Margit, "Showers make your hair fall out."
Claire Lodge, "If you want to keep Charles in love with you, don't try to change him. Just make up your mind you're in an asylum. And married to the head lunatic."
Here's another dialog sequence that's hilarious prattle between Margit and her gardener, Angelo (done very well by Henry Taylor). Margit, "Angelo?" Angelo, "Yes, Miss Agnew?" Margit, "The paper says cloudy, probably rain. You won't have to water the garden today. How's your bambino?" Angelo, "Don't water the lawn. The bambino? Oh, he's fine." Margit, "So you can use that time to get rid of all these weeds. Be sure he gets his cod liver oil." Angelo, "Yes, Ma'am. Pull the weeds and oil the bambino. Yes, Ma'am."
Some reviewers have noted the delay in completing this film, and the strain particularly on William Powell and Myrna Loy over the death of Jean Harlow. She and Powell were planning to be married, and Loy was a close friend. Harlow was just 26 years old when she died June 7, 1937, from kidney failure. She had been ill on and off for the past year, but her illnesses had variously been diagnosed as influenza and an inflamed gallbladder. Only toward the end was she diagnosed with kidney failure, for which there was no treatment at the time. Her kidney problems may have stemmed from the Scarlet Fever she had as a child.
For her short career, Harlow was well liked by people all across the movie industry. MGM closed its studio the day of her funeral. At the time of her death, she was starring with Clark Gable in "Saratoga." The film was finished using three doubles for distance shots and some revisions. It was a box office hit when it came out in July. And, Harlow's close friends in the cast of "Double Wedding" completed it under emotional duress for its release in October of that year.
