Review of Mr. & Mrs. Smith

Introduction

If you woke up tomorrow and discovered you weren`t legally married to your husband would you just walk away and start again?

Mr and Mrs Smith are blissfully happy so it seems, apart from their passionate rows and equally passionate and time-consuming making up.

In a moment of madness David Smith foolishly gives an honest answer to one of his wife`s difficult questions. He declares if he had to choose marriage or being single he would chose being single. An hour later he finds out from a government official that he is officially a single man. This gets him quite frisky and he sets up a night of illicit passion with his now not-wife. Unfortunately for him the government official also visits Ann Smith and she is incensed by David`s behaviour. Believing he doesn`t love her she throws him out. It`s going to take a lot of hard work to win her back.

The two leads carry most of the film but are ably supported by Gene Raymond as David`s somewhat two-faced friend and business partner and a short blast of Jack Carson as his womanising buddy.

Video

The film was released in 1941. It is very old. It has not been well treated and this is a below average transfer. It`s quite marked in places. Once you get into the story its easy to forget about this. It looks like was shot entirely on sets. Hitchcock was known not to be fond of location shooting. Due to the age of the film and that its in black and white it is less obvious than in his later colour films

Audio

This is adequate. There is a lovely music soundtrack almost in the style of `Steamboat Willie` or `Popeye`. Lots of whistling, and amusing musical moments that complement the dry humour of the piece.

Despite the age there is no background hiss.

Features

Once again its trailer heaven as the studio sells a film it knows little about and cares even less.

Conclusion

A delightful comedy with a rather risqué edge to it for 1941. It manages never to mention sex whilst thinking about it most of the time. Ann as played by Carole Lombard is a very modern woman with strong ideas. Her first move after she throws David out is to get a job.

It is let down by the quality of the DVD but that regrettably seems to be the case with many of the older films where they have not been well treated. It is issued as part of the Hitchcock Collection and many people will buy it for completeness although it doesn`t seem to want to fit on the same shelf as `Psycho` and `Rear Window`. It`s a reminder of an age where the censors` were very keen that married people should only share twin beds and it cheekily exploits everyone`s obsession with sex and naughtiness in a sophisticated way.