Grant has a way of delivering lines like no other. It might be his sarcasm, tongue-in-cheek, whatever you want to call it, but no one can quite do it the way he does. Some might come off cynical, or maybe a bit funny, and some are just so awful at it you really wonder how they got cast in the film to begin with. But Grant, he does it with finesse, a sophistication that not all have mastered. From the opening of the film, Jerry's trying to get a self-tan at the Gotham Athletic Club because was he or wasn't he in Florida? He didn't want to embarrass Lucy for not having a tan--never actually saying if he was in Florida--and "what wives don't know won't hurt them." It's completely wrong, but he says it so matter of fact that you just laugh along and he gets away with it.
This is another film, in which the director--in this case Leo McCarey--chose to improvise a great deal. As I've re-watched the film, I wonder how much of the dialogue was improvised. This would certainly explain why Grant does such a great job at delivering his lines, but at the same time it shows how funny he truly was. Lines, like the scene at the restaurant when Jerry, Lucy, and Dan are watching Dixie Belle Lee sing "My Dreams Are Gone With the Wind" and everyone the group is mortified--although Dan looks a bit intrigued--and Jerry turns to Lucy and says, "I just met her." It's not just the line, it's the timing and his facial expressions, especially as he says it to a mildly horrified Lucy, who, after the number, says, "I guess it was easier for her to change her name than her whole family." It's as if one line provokes another to come out and further enhances the hilarity of the scene.
But there are a number of scenes like these, and really it's Grant who brings the film up a notch. Another favorite is when Jerry meets Dan for the first time, which incidentally is the first time Lucy meets Dan. "How can you be happy to know me?" Jerry asks Dan with such a mixture of curiosity and mocking tone. And it's not just in the voice, but in the body movements and his facial expressions. Later when he starts playing the piano for Mr Smith to sing/bark along, Grant has so much fun with it, his laughter is contagious and you wish the duet would continue. And when Lucy throws a newspaper at him to quiet down, he's shocked, while he's on all four with Mr Smith, the two rough-playing, his hair disheveled. Hardly, the image you'd think of a well-to-do gentleman, but there you go, that's the screwball hero as personified by Grant.
It's interesting to note as well that Grant is the first true screwball hero I've seen out of these particular films I've watched (a number of others come to mind but not of the previous five films I watched). The screwball hero in the previous five films has either been completely different, and in one case not much of one. For this film, the screwball hero is as equally screwy as Irene Bullock from My Man Godfrey. There are many instances in which Grant gives a performances of a man with an inner child bursting out to get what he wants, or as I like to think it, just a guy who likes to have fun, even if it is at the expense of others. He perches himself atop the arm of a couch as he looks from his wife to his wife's music teacher. While wearing a suit, he's seen frequently playing on all fours with Mr Smith. He gives a glowing recommendation of his soon-to-be ex-wife with such sarcasm as "she's a pure as the driven snow," while crossing his fingers behind him so she can see it. And of course there's that boyish laugh of his. When he's hiding behind the door and tickles Lucy with a pencil while she's talking with Dan, there's no laughter, but his face reveals such childlike pleasure at getting to Lucy. Grant gives us a screwball hero that is every bit as screwy as other screwball heroines and in turn flipping the roles around as it's usually the female who's the screwy one and the male trying to bring some sanity to the situation.
What else to say about Cary Grant, except that he's so much fun to watch when he does comedy and slapstick, especially. He has a great scene in which Jerry literally crashes Lucy's recital and falls off a chair, bringing more attention to himself than Lucy, who's performing. But overall, Grant shows at the importance of delivering lines with the right tone, at the right time, and with the right body movements and facial gestures. No one else is able to quite perform the screwball hero like him, and that makes The Awful Truth an extra-special bit of fun to watch.
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