Guest Wife (1945)

“I can tell more about a woman by looking at her feet than by looking at her face”. Luckily “Mary” (Claudette Colbert) doesn’t wear Wellington boots in this sometimes rather confusing comedy. She is happily married to docile bank manager “Chris” (Dick Foran) who, in turn, just happens to be best pal with writer “Joe” (Don Ameche). This latter chap has a problem. He has won an award - and an $1,000 honorarium, but he needs to acquire a wife in an hurry. Who better than “Mary”? She’s none too keen on “Joe” nor on this wacky idea, but for  the sake of a peaceable life she agrees. Imagine the confusion that causes at home when his boss sees his wife in the newspapers married to an altogether different man! Tongues will wag and there might even be a run on the bank! Well, enter onto the scene the redoubtable Charles Dingle’s “Worth” and then add a dose of mischief from a “Mary” who has decided she is going to have some fun, and we are set fair for a standard screenplay that delivers predictably, but that also showcases Colbert’s engaging talent with this flighty and amiable character and an Ameche who is on good form, too. The plot does recycle itself once or twice and the scenarios do contrive the humour a little, but this has enough different about it to avoid the usual “love triangle” type of scenario, there are a few enjoyable twists, and ever since her “Cleopatra” in 1934, Colbert can do little wrong in my book.