Grade: D
Synopsis: A bickering New York couple (Carole Lombard and Robert Montgomery) learns from a lawyer that, due to a technicality, they’re not actually married.
It should be noted from the outset that Alfred Hitchcock reportedly agreed to direct Mr. & Mrs. Smith solely as a favor to star Carole Lombard. Hitch always was a sucker for blondes.
That said, Hitchcock might be the Master of Suspense, but the Master of Screwball Comedy he’s certainly not. Howard Hawks and Cary Grant might have been able to so something with the material—Hitchcock reportedly wanted Grant for the male lead, who was unavailable—but we’ll never know.
Instead, we’re left with a flat, overlong, and ultimately unfunny story that stretches about a 10-minute gag into a 95-minute feature. There really isn’t much to like here. Neither Lombard nor co-star Robert Montgomery play particularly likable or interesting characters, and the script passes at the chance to turn the film into a black comedy ala The War of the Roses (1989).
In the end, Hitchcock’s cameo is about the only thing differentiating Mr. & Mrs. Smith from the countless other flat screwball comedies of its era. Though it did portend a potential re-teaming of Hitchcock and Lombard, it was, unfortunately, never to occur due to her untimely death in a plane crash the following year.
