One of the greatest screwball comedies of the thirties, The Awful Truth is arguably the archetypal example of this influential genre. The plot -- in which a gorgeous, sophisticated couple (played by Cary Grant and Irene Dunne) divorce, dabble with various Mr. and Miss Wrongs, and get back together again -- is the screwball formula distilled to its essence. Also exemplary are the film's opulent sets and costumes, and Grant's and Dunne's fabulously witty dialogue. Like the featured couple in most screwball comedies, Jerry and Lucy Warriner are made for each other, a fact reinforced mostly by their sublime bickering (and the supporting characters' futile attempts to keep up with them). Based on a stage play by Arthur Richman that had been filmed twice before, Vina Delmar's script ably supplies the two stars with choice barbs, and Leo McCarey's confident direction keeps the action moving from set piece to hilarious set piece. Grant and Dunne are, unsurprisingly, brilliant as the warring Warriners, though special mention must also be made of some of the actors playing their hapless suitors: Ralph Bellamy as the hayseed Dan Leeson (Bellamy would later play nearly the same role in Howard Hawks' His Girl Friday); Alexander d'Arcy as the hilariously insipid Armand Duvalle; and Joyce Compton as the incomparable Dixie Belle Lee. Nominated for six Oscars in 1938, the film walked away with only one, for McCarey.