''He Married His Wife'' is a 1940 film about a race horse owner (

Joel McCrea Joel Albert McCrea (November 5, 1905 – October 20, 1990) was an American actor whose career spanned a wide variety of genres over almost five decades, including comedy, drama, romance, thrillers, adventures, and Westerns, for which he bec ...

) who wants his ex-wife (

Nancy Kelly Nancy Kelly (March 25, 1921 – January 2, 1995) was an American actress in film, theater and television. A child actress and model, she was a repertory cast member of CBS Radio's ''The March of Time'' and appeared in several films in the late 1 ...

) to remarry so he'll no longer have to pay

alimony Alimony, also called aliment (Scotland), maintenance (England, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Wales, Canada, New Zealand), spousal support (U.S., Canada) and spouse maintenance (Australia), is a legal obligation on a person to provide financial sup ...

. This movie is a

black-and-white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white in a continuous spectrum, producing a range of shades of grey. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, and as technology improved, altered to color. ...

comedy Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...

released 19 January 1940, directed by

Roy Del Ruth Roy Del Ruth (October 18, 1893, Delaware – April 27, 1961) was an American filmmaker. Early career Beginning his Hollywood career as a writer for Mack Sennett in 1915, Del Ruth later directed his first short film ''Hungry Lions'' (1919) ...

and written by

John O'Hara John Henry O'Hara (January 31, 1905 – April 11, 1970) was one of America's most prolific writers of short stories, credited with helping to invent ''The New Yorker'' magazine short story style.John O'Hara: Stories, Charles McGrath, ed., The ...

, among others.

Plot summary

Horse racing enthusiast T.H. "Randy" Randall is a happily divorced man nowadays. On the day of the one-year anniversary of the divorce, he and his former wife, Valerie, go to the restaurant where they first fell in love. Randy was responsible for breaking up their marriage in the first place, by spending more time with his race horse than Valerie. At the restaurant, while they are dancing, the police come and arrest Randy for not paying his alimony to Valerie. He is thrown in jail, and desperate to get out he starts to plan how to get rid of his obligation to pay alimony altogether. He finds that the best solution is to get Valerie to marry someone else, and so he tries to fix her up with a friend of his, Paul Hunter. They both accompany Randy to a party at the estate of a rich eccentric socialité, Ethel Hilary, who has a special interest in collecting original characters to her circle of friends at the estate. Besides Randy and his company and yoga master Dickie Brown, a very handsome man named Freddie arrives to the estate. He is unknown to everyone, but is soon romantically interested in Valerie, trying to get her interested in him by singing her a serenade in the night. She mistakes the singer for Randy, and he discovers that Valerie is more interested in Freddie than Paul, and forces her to go with him instead of Freddie to a picnic. Problems arise when Randy gets a flat tire and Valerie has to be escorted by Freddie anyway. She manages to get Freddie to propose to her at the picnic, but is devastated to learn that Freddie is already married. Having re-discovered his interest in Valerie, Randy gets jealous of Freddie, and wants to remarry his ex-wife. Randy quickly proposes to Valerie and she immediately accepts, having longed a long time for him to utter those words. Unfortunately Randy's lawyer, Bill Carter, accidentally reveals that Randy has had a "plan" to get rid of the alimony, and Valerie gets second thoughts about marrying him again. She decides on marrying the dull Paul instead, upset with Randy's presumptious behavior. The marriage is about to take place at the estate, but on the wedding day both Randy and Paul turn up as grooms. During the ceremony, Randy's own race horse Ajax participates in a race broadcast over the radio. The ceremony is quite disturbed by the race, and just when Valerie has decided to marry Randy, the horse wins the race to both their joy.

Cast

as Randy Randall *

as Valerie Randall * Roland Young as Bill Carter * Mary Boland as Ethel Hilary *

Cesar Romero Cesar Julio Romero Jr. (February 15, 1907 – January 1, 1994) was an American actor and activist. He was active in film, radio, and television for almost sixty years. His wide range of screen roles included Latin lovers, historical figures in c ...

as Freddie * Mary Healy as Doris *

Lyle Talbot Lyle Florenz Talbot (born Lisle Henderson, also credited Lysle Talbot; February 8, 1902 – March 2, 1996) was an American stage, screen and television actor. His career in films spanned three decades, from 1931 to 1960, and he performed on ...

as Paul Hunter *

Elisha Cook, Jr. Elisha Vanslyck Cook Jr. (December 26, 1903 – May 18, 1995) was an American character actor famed for his work in films noir. According to Bill Georgaris of TSPDT: They Shoot Pictures, Don't They, Cook appeared in a total of 21 film n ...

as Dickie Brown *

Barnett Parker Barnett Parker (September 11, 1886 – August 5, 1941) was a British actor. Biography He appeared in the films '' The Misleading Lady'', ''Roaming Lady'', ''The President's Mystery'', ''Adventure in Manhattan'', ''Born to Dance'', ''We Who Are A ...

as Huggins *

Harry Hayden Harry may refer to: TV shows * ''Harry'' (American TV series), a 1987 American comedy series starring Alan Arkin * ''Harry'' (British TV series), a 1993 BBC drama that ran for two seasons * ''Harry'' (talk show), a 2016 American daytime talk show ...

as Prisoner * Charles C. Wilson as Warden (billed as Charles Wilson) *

Charles D. Brown Charles D. Brown (July 1, 1887 – November 25, 1948) was an American stage and film actor. Born in Council Bluffs, Iowa, Brown wrote and directed a single short film in 1914. As an actor, he appeared in more than 100 films, stretching fro ...

as Detective *

Spencer Charters Spencer Charters (March 25, 1875 – January 25, 1943) was an American film actor. He appeared in more than 220 films between 1920 and 1943, mostly in small supporting roles. Biography Charters was born in Duncannon, Pennsylvania. Until ...

as Mayor *

Leyland Hodgson Leyland Hodgson (5 October 1892 – 16 March 1949), also known as Leland Hodgson, was an English-born American character actor of the 1930s and 1940s. Born in London on 5 October 1892, Hodgson entered the theater in 1898. In his early 20s, Ho ...

as Waiter * William Edmunds as Waiter

External links

He Married His Wife
at the

Internet Movie Database IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...

* *

References

{{Roy Del Ruth 1940 films American black-and-white films 1940s English-language films Films directed by Roy Del Ruth Films with screenplays by John O'Hara American horse racing films 1940 comedy films American comedy films 20th Century Fox films 1940s American films