The Toy Wife is a 1938 American drama film directed by Richard Thorpe and starring Luise Rainer and Melvyn Douglas.

After returning home, Frou-Frou and her older sister Louise befriend Georges Sartoris, a family friend who received a knife wound after prosecuting a white man for killing a black slave.

Fearing she would be unable to give up her life style to become attached to the household, Georges asks Louise to teach her sister how to be a wife.

Six months later, Frou-Frou's father Victor is informed by Madame Vallaire that his daughter and Andre are currently living in New York City.

It is hinted that Andre had purposely chosen to be the loser in the duel, because he chose pistols as the weapons, rather than his actual preference of swords.

She had become famous in a short period by winning two Oscars for her portrayal of Anna Held in The Great Ziegfeld (1936) and O-Lan in The Good Earth (1937).

Suddenly, the public didn't care about her anymore and she angered studio head Louis B. Mayer by constantly demanding a higher salary.

There was a schedule conflict during the production, which forced director Richard Thorpe to withdraw from the direction of The Shopworn Angel (1938), a drama film starring Margaret Sullavan and James Stewart.

By casting Rainer, the studio couldn't afford a famous male lead and assigned Melvyn Douglas instead.

[5] Rainer received a lot of negative criticism, with The New York Times calling her portrayal "wound too tightly for anybody's comfort".