This is a revision of the second article in this series originally published on CinemaSight in September 2010.
Of all the great stars of the studio era, Dunne remains the least known to modern audiences. That’s largely because so many of her films were remade and the originals suppressed by the studios. Although most became available on subsequent home video releases, many are still largely unseen by the majority of the public.
Born in 1898, the operatically trained Dunne scored such a sensation starring in the original touring version of Show Boat that she was given a contract by RKO who saw her as a threat to their reigning star, Ann Harding. Given that Harding was three years younger than Dunne, studio publicity gave her date of birth as 1904, making her appear to be three years younger than Harding. The six-year discrepancy did not surface publicly until Dunne’s career was long behind her.
Among Dunne’s many hits that provided potent opportunities for other actresses in newer versions were Cimarron (Maria Schell); Back Street (Margaret Sullavan, Susan Hayward); The Age of Innocence (Michelle Pfeiffer); Magnificent Obsession and The Awful Truth (Jane Wyman), Roberta and Show Boat (Kathryn Grayson); Love Affair (Deborah Kerr, Annette Bening); My Favorite Wife (Marilyn Monroe, Doris Day); A Guy Named Joe (Holly Hunter); Anna and the King of Siam (Deborah Kerr, Jodie Foster); Life With Father (Lurene Tuttle on TV); I Remember Mama (Peggy Wood on TV); and even The Mudlark (with Judi Dench as Queen Victoria in a similar story).
Her ability to cry on cue like the great stage actresses caused Dunne to be cast in many melodramas from 1931-1935, but her comedic turn in 1936’s smash hit Theodora Goes Wild was so unexpectedly brilliant that she was able to alternate comedic and dramatic roles in topflight entertainments for the remainder of her career. Indeed, two of her five Oscar nominations were for drama, two for comedy and one for a potent mixture of both.
Dunne’s fifth Oscar nomination for 1948’s I Remember Mama made her only the third actress to receive five nominations. Only Bette Davis with seven and Greer Garson with six had received more. Her competition consisted of former winner Ingrid Bergman nominated for the fourth time for Joan of Arc, former winner Olivia de Havilland nominated for the fourth time for The Snake Pit, Barbara Stanwyck nominated for the fourth time for Sorry, Wrong Number, and Jane Wyman nominated for the second time for Johnny Belinda. The winner was Wyman whose fourth and final Oscar nomination would be for the 1954 remake of Dunne’s 1936 film, Magnificent Obsession.
Irene Dunne retired from the screen in 1952 to devote her time to the charitable causes that had always been a large part of her life. President Eisenhower appointed her as an alternate delegate to the U.N. in 1953, such was her continuing popularity. A Kennedy Center honoree in 1985, she died in 1990 at 91.
ESSENTIAL FILMS
THEODORA GOES WILD (1936), directed by Richard Boleslawski
The same year in which she got to repeat her stage triumph in Show Boat, Dunne was given the chance to kick up her heels and display her perfect sense of comic timing as the small-town girl who writes a sexy novel under an assumed name, which scandalizes her prudish family and neighbors. The film, which co-starred Melvyn Douglas, Thomas Mitchell, and Spring Byington, was such a huge hit that for several years the screen’s great tragedienne would only be offered comedic roles. Dunne’s return home holding a baby, wrongfully assumed to be hers, sets up one of the greatest endings in movie comedy history.
THE AWFUL TRUTH (1937), directed by Leo McCarey
This is the film that made Cary Grant a superstar. He is perfect imitating director McCarey’s nervous tics throughout, but Dunne is equally sublime, her comic timing the equal of Grant’s, considered the best of his many female co-stars. It was the first of three films they made together. 1940’s My Favorite Wife and 1941’s Penny Serenade would follow. It was unsuccessfully remade as 1953’s Let’s Do It Again with Jane Wyman and Ray Milland The film also features stellar performances by Ralph Bellamy, Alexander D’Arcy, Cecil Cunningham, Esther Dale, Joyce Compton, Molly Lamont, and Asta the dog from The Thin Man.
LOVE AFFAIR (1939), directed by Leo McCarey
This was Dunne’s favorite film, and although the Deborah Kerr-Cary Grant remake, also directed by McCarey, is better known and perhaps even slightly better, the original version is is also quite wonderful. Dunne is the nightclub singer who has a shipboard romance with suave Charles Boyer, finding his soft spot when they visit his grandmother (Maria Ouspenskaya). You should see both this and 1957’s An Affair to Remember with Kerr, Grant, and Cathleen Nesbitt. Avoid the 1994 remake with Annette Bening, Warren Beatty, and Katharine Hepburn who played Beatty’s aunt because even at 86 she refused to play someone’s grandmother!
THE WHITE CLIFFS OF DOVER (1944), directed by Clarence Brown
This was one of the few Dunne classics that was not remade and therefore available to audiences all along. She is magnificent as an American woman living in England who loses her husband to World War I and her son to World War II. It’s Often sad but never maudlin. Dunne’s supporting cast includes Alan Marshall as her husband, Gladys Cooper as her mother-in-law, Dame May Whitty as Cooper’s maid, Roddy McDowell (later Peter Lawford) as Dunne’s son, Elizabeth Taylor (later June Lockhart) as her son’s sweetheart, Frank Morgan as her father, C. Aubrey Smith as her father’s friend, and Van Johnson as her one-time beau.
I REMEMBER MAMA (1948), directed by George Stevens
Set in 1910 San Francisco, based on a best-selling novel and hit Broadway play, the film version is meticulously crafted by George Stevens, making his first post-war film. Filmed partially on location in San Francisco, the film’s basic theme is that “money isn’t everything,” a point driven home by Mama’s many bromides. Nominated for an Oscar for the fifth time, Barbara Bel Geddes as her eldest daughter, Oscar Homolka as her uncle, and Ellen Corby as one of her sisters were also nominated. The film’s success led to one of TV’s first major hits, re-titled simply Mama and starring Peggy Wood, it would last from 1949 – 1957.
IRENE DUNNE AND OSCAR
Cimarron (1931) – nominated – Best Actress
Theodora Goes Wild (1936) – nominated – Best Actress
The Awful Truth (1937) – nominated – Best Actress
Love Affair (1939) – nominated – Best Actress
I Remember Mama (1948) – nominated – Best Actress
