My Wife's Best Friend (1952) User Reviews (5)

Cute Anne Baxter vehicle

[mrsastor · 7/10 · 9 August 2007]

This is not likely a movie you will subsequently set up all night discussing, but it is cute and more typical of Miss Baxter's pre "Eve" fare than post Eve.

As Virginia and George Mason are flying off on their vacation, their is serious aircraft trouble and they believe they are going to perish on the plane. In the heat of the moment, George suddenly confesses to Virginia that he had an affair with her best friend Jane. Much to his later chagrin, the plane is safely turned around and taken back to the airport, and now he must live with the consequences of his confession.

This, by the way, is played as light, charming 1950's marital comedy, and in that vein it works pretty well. Virginia occupies herself with ways in which to punish her husband and bring further recognition to her status as victim. Cecil Kellaway is very entertaining, as always.

The only real drawback to the film is that the Jane character is played in a manner that will strike modern audiences as an obvious lesbian. It is impossible to believe either George would stray from the very cute and sexy Virginia for the mannish and pushy Jane, or that Jane would be interested in ANY man. I don't think this may have read this way to 1950's audiences.

This film is rarely ever shown, I don't know why, much worse films get a great deal more air time. If you have a chance to see it, do. It's a nice little show.

should have been funnier

[blanche-2 · 6/10 · 29 June 2015]

"My Wife's Best Friend" from 1952 is a cute comedy that could have been riotous.

A couple is on an airplane that they are afraid is going to crash. The husband confesses to his wife that while she was away once, he had an affair with her best friend.

Unfortunately, the plane doesn't crash and they survive. He can kiss his life goodbye anyway.

She finally forgives him, but that's worse.

The film stars Macdonald Carey and Anne Baxter as the couple, with a supporting cast of Cecil Kellaway, Max Showalter, and Francis Bavier.

There were some fun bits in this, particularly when Virginia, the wife, imagines herself being noble like Joan of Arc, or some other heroines not quite so noble.

So despite a good story and good dialogue, why didn't this work for me? Well, here it is. Anne Baxter and Macdonald Carey were both good actors, but they were not experts in comedy. That wouldn't have been a problem except that in Baxter's case, she tried to DO comedy. If she had played it straight and let the humor come from the character instead of striking an attitude, it would have been funny.

Still worth seeing as it's a pleasant film.

**

[edwagreen · 4/10 · 2 July 2015]

Anne Baxter acted in a true dramatic faction in this comedy. Ditto for MacDonald Carey.

This inane film deals with Baxter spending the entire film pouting over the fact that her husband admitted to an alleged affair with her best friend 3 years ago.

This totally turns Virginia, the Baxter character, into a woman who is angry but then suddenly accepts forgiveness from the form of her minister father Cecil Kellaway. Fran Bavier, Aunt Bee, from the Andy Griffith show, appears as her mother.

Virginia lets her imagination get the best of her by thinking how Joan of Arc and Cleopatra would have handled the situation. Of course, there is the element of using a fellow businessman, Leif Erickson, as a possible way to get George, her husband, jealous.

The whole concept was childish.

She may no longer be Eve, but she definitely has three faces!

[mark.waltz · 4/10 · 20 July 2015]

Would a woman rather know the truth than have a secret kept from her, especially if it involves her husband's one betrayal? Push comes to shove for a contented married couple (Anne Baxter and MacDonald Carey) when a possible date with death makes him confess to her that he had an affair with her best friend (Catherine McLeod) while she was away taking a break from their marriage. At first, she's grateful to him for telling her, but surviving a possible plane crash has her giving second thoughts and ultimately going out of her mind. Being a minister's daughter makes divorce unthinkable, but she leaves him anyway, only returning to seek some sort of psychological revenge on him, turning into several different personalities (not splitting from her own however) as she tries to come to terms with it.

I can certainly see why Baxter would want to play such a role. It gives her multiple opportunities (and identities) to act out, but unfortunately, the execution of the idea is very weak and overly forced. She's the spawn of an extremely overly possessive, nagging mother (Frances Bavier, a far cry from the Aunt Bea character she became beloved for), and even her father (a delightful Cecil Kellaway) knows she's out of line. When husband Carey goes to a men's spa after leaving Baxter a note that their marriage is now officially over, she follows both him and her father there, greeted by security guards who attest to the obvious fact that "all men are created hen-pecked", the only really funny line in the film. Max Showalter adds some pep as Carey's drinking buddy, an obvious "bachelor".

For those who only know MacDonald Carey from his three decade long role as patriarch Tom Horton on "Days of Our Lives", this is a far different type of role than the dedicated doctor and family man. Even though he's guilty of infidelity, the bulk of the sympathy in this situation goes to him. McLeod's character seems to have no real motivation here but to provide continued jealousy for Baxter to play off of. Baxter's fantasies alternate between silly and campy (one of them foreshadows her role as the Egyptian Princess in "The Ten Commandments"), but the lessons presented here do nothing to promote the benefits of fidelity as well as the power of forgiveness. This may have seemed like a unique idea on paper, but unfortunately, it becomes rather heavy-handed, attempting "man bashing" when it is the men who come off more likable and the women as silly, vain creatures who only see the situation from one angle.

Wife's daydream of grandeur

[grumpy736-1 · 10/10 · 2 May 2013]

My sister and I saw this in 1952 and were impressed enough to remember some of the lines until this day. Ann Baxter "Oh, I'd just go mad if I didn't have my little escape hatches!" We put it into some of our little family entertainment dramas. I was 16 and she was 13 when we saw it.

It was fun -- and I thought I recognized Wild Red Barry as one of the toughs at the Men Only health retreat. According to the cast list it was Henry Kulky as the 'pug'. Mike Mazursky, also a pro rassler, is not credited at all, although he has a line about not fearing to push a ladies face in.

I agree -- why isn't it shown more often? While the Empress walks the naked backs of male slaves she digs her high heel around a bit on MacDoanld Carey, and he looks up at the camera in dismay or something.