Our Wife (1941)

Vivid fire scene

The story begins on an ocean liner. Jerry Marvin (Melvin Douglas) is completely drunk and falls overboard. He's rescued and the Drake family befriends him and tries to help dry him out and give him a sense of purpose. After all, Jerry had been a famous composer and his life fell apart when his wife left him. Perhaps, with some friendship he'll return to being a productive human being instead of a drunken wreck.

Over the course of their time together, Jerry finds his muse and is once back creating beautiful music. He also falls for Susan (Ruth Hussey) and wants to marry her. At about this time, Jerry's wife returns and it's obvious Babe (Ellen Drew) is only interested in him because of his recent success. But Jerry is firm and insists he WILL marry Susan. At that time, Babe fakes and injury and pretends to be paralyzed...forcing Jerry and his maid to take care of her. But Susan is not as stupid as Jerry and knows, sooner or later, that Babe will overplay her hand and folks will realize she's a fake.

This is a very unusual film because for once, Melvyn Douglas is a much more passive character in one of his films. He's cute as the drunk in the first third of the film but is uncharacteristically dim....and he usually is one of the more cynical sort of actors. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, as the women make up for his passivity. Overall, well worth seeing, though not among Douglas' best.