The Awful Truth is a 1937 American screwball comedy film directed by Leo McCarey, and starring Irene Dunne and Cary Grant.

Based on the 1922 play The Awful Truth by Arthur Richman, the film recounts a distrustful rich couple who begin divorce proceedings, only to interfere with one another's romances.

Although Grant tried to leave the production due to McCarey's directorial style, The Awful Truth saw his emergence as an A-list star and proponent of on-the-set improvisation.

The film was a box office success and was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actress (Dunne), and Best Supporting Actor (Ralph Bellamy), winning for Best Director (McCarey).

The Awful Truth was selected in 1996 for preservation in the Library of Congress' National Film Registry, deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

He returns home to find that his wife, Lucy, spent the night in the company of her handsome music teacher, Armand Duvalle.

Jerry begins dating sweet-natured but simple singer Dixie Belle Lee, unaware that she performs an embarrassing, sexually suggestive act at a local nightclub.

Although sleeping in different (but adjoining) bedrooms, Jerry and Lucy slowly overcome their pride and a series of comic mishaps in order to admit "the awful truth" that they still love one another.

[10] Doran chose to remake the film in 1937, just as Columbia head Harry Cohn was hiring director Leo McCarey to direct comedies for the studio.

[10][17] Taylor changed Norman Satterly to Jerry Warriner, got rid of much of the play's moralistic tone, and added a good deal of screwball comedy.

[9] Film historians Iwan W. Morgan and Philip Davies say that McCarey retained only a single aspect of Delmar's work: The alleged infidelity of both man and wife.

[19][39] McCarey wanted her for the film[40] because he thought the "incongruity" of a "genteel" actress like Dunne in screwball comedy was funny,[41] and she was asked to appear in it even though Delmar was still working on a script.

[28] Delmar's draft script, sent to Bellamy by his agent,[29] originally described Dan Leeson as a conservative, prudish Englishman,[28] a role written with Roland Young in mind.

For a critical scene in which Mr. Smith is to leap into Jerry Warriner's arms, a white rubber mouse (one of the dog's favorite toys) was placed in Cary Grant's breast pocket.

[56] The human cast of The Awful Truth was also forced to take several unscheduled days of vacation in late July 1937 because Skippy was booked on another film.

[73] The first four or five days on the set[73] were deeply upsetting to Dunne, Grant, and Bellamy due to the lack of a script and McCarey's working methods.

Grant had spent most of his career at Paramount Studios, which had a factory-like approach to motion picture production;[78] actors were expected to learn their lines and be ready every morning, and shooting schedules were strictly enforced.

McCarey told him that the clothes he'd brought from home fit the part perfectly, which made Bellamy feel comfortable in his acting and comedy choices.

Jerry Warriner's need to find a lie to cover for his "boys' night out away from the wives" is a typical scenario McCarey used in many feature motion pictures and short films.

[85] McCarey also relied on his ability to craft a narrative from a series of unrelated sketches,[86][q] and he often staged portions of his films like musicals, inserting a song to tie elements together.

"[88] Nearly every day during principal photography, Leo McCarey would arrive in the morning with ideas for the film written down on scraps of paper.

[25][t] McCarey continued to meet with screenwriter Viña Delmar every evening,[90] sitting with her in a parked car on Hollywood Boulevard and improvising scenes for her to write down.

In the Delmar script, Jerry's date is named Toots Biswanger and the scene is meant to parody the novel Gone with the Wind (two years before the film).

He angrily confronted McCarey in front of the cast and crew, shouting, "I hired you to make a great comedy so I could show up Frank Capra.

Finally, after much experimentation, the actor's makeup was changed to fair from swarthy, he was told not to gesticulate too much, and he created a nondescript, vaguely European accent (which was nicknamed "Spenchard") for his role.

[97] One of the film's best remembered comedy moments is when Lucy Warriner accompanies an out of tune Dan Leeson on the piano while he sings "Home on the Range".

[113] One major cut made to the film was actor Claud Allister's performance as Lord Fabian in the Vance drawing room scene, which was completely excised.

[114] Film historian James Harvey says that the comic timing of Clark's editing in the nightclub scene—cutting from Dixie Belle Lee's performance to Jerry, Lucy, and Dan at the table—is "exquisite...unmatched deadpan brilliance".

[43] The film contained several risqué moments which normally would have run afoul of the Motion Picture Production Code, including Jerry making double entendres about coal mines to an oblivious Dan, Dixie Belle Lee's exposed underwear, Lucy "goosing" pompous Mrs. Vance, and the final moment of the film when the cuckoo clock figures go into the same room together.

[125] The Awful Truth was selected in 1996 for preservation in the Library of Congress' National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".