FILM : Leo McCarey’s Awfully Amusing ‘Truth’

Leo McCarey cut his Hollywood teeth directing zippy “Our Gang” shorts for one of the impresarios of banana peel humor, Hal Roach.

After Roach, McCarey’s methods matured while working on Laurel and Hardy, Mae West and W.C. Fields movies and reached a veteran’s surehandedness in 1937, when he directed “The Awful Truth” for Columbia studios. He won an Oscar for this screwball comedy (screening Friday night in Fullerton) by remembering the vitality of his early experiences while keeping in mind the stylish notions of the ‘30s.

“The Awful Truth” is one of dozens of sleek and boisterous escapist yarns that Hollywood put out during that decade. Most were set in a post-Depression milieu of wealth and cultured manners, where the humor tended to both celebrate and tweak the rich lifestyles on parade.

McCarey was really good at that. His battling Warriners (Irene Dunne’s Lucy and Cary Grant’s Jerry) are loaded, with great looks and great clothes. But they’re stumblers and bumblers too, mostly when it comes to each other. McCarey and his team of Dunne and Grant bring a patina of slapstick to this high-society story based on Arthur Richman’s play and adapted for the screen by Vina Delmar.

With his mobile, clean-featured face and aristocratic grace, Grant put swank in the screwball. He starred in several movies similar to the “The Awful Truth,” but this is one of the better ones. Even when the movie takes too long fiddling with a scene (McCarey can be guilty of talkiness and lingering with a moment), Grant is there with some voltage. His Jerry has a slow burn that ignites into mischief throughout this comedy about how the Warriners can’t live with or without each other, and try to sabotage any new relationships that come up during their separation.

Dunne plays against Grant’s fidgety aplomb with a kind of bemused enchantment. Even when she’s struggling not to be in love, Lucy can’t help but look at Jerry in that hopeless way. She’s not a simp, though like Carole Lombard and Barbara Stanwyck, Dunne could bring brass to vulnerability.

McCarey lets their chemistry do its thing, but he also finds time to throw out a spate of directorial shenanigans. A scene where Jerry, hiding behind a door, tickles Lucy with a feather while another suitor (Ralph Bellamy in another of his perfectly timed simpleton roles) tries to woo her is a mixture of corn and helium. It shows why Jerry and Lucy are in love. They have so much fun, even when torturing each other.

What: Leo McCarey’s “The Awful Truth.”

When: Friday, Oct. 4, at 7:30 p.m.

Where: The Wilshire Auditorium, 330 N. Lemon St., Fullerton.

Whereabouts: Take the Riverside (91) Freeway to Lemon Street and head north.

Wherewithal: $3 and $4.

Where to Call: (714) 779-8577.