My Favorite Wife

My Favorite Wife
Theatrical release poster
Directed byGarson Kanin
Screenplay byBella Spewack
Samuel Spewack
Story byLeo McCarey
Bella Spewack
Samuel Spewack
Produced byLeo McCarey
StarringIrene Dunne
Cary Grant
Randolph Scott
Gail Patrick
CinematographyRudolph Maté
Edited byRobert Wise
Music byRoy Webb
Production
company
Distributed byRKO Radio Pictures
Release date
  • May 17, 1940 (1940-05-17)
Running time
88 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$921,000
Box office$2,057,000

My Favorite Wife is a 1940 American screwball comedy film produced by Leo McCarey and directed by Garson Kanin. It stars Irene Dunne as a woman who, after being shipwrecked on a tropical island for several years and declared legally dead, returns to her [former] husband (Cary Grant) and children.

The story is an adaptation of Alfred, Lord Tennyson's 1864 poem "Enoch Arden". In tribute, the main characters' last name is Arden.

The supporting cast features Gail Patrick as the woman Arden has just married when his first wife returns, and Randolph Scott as the man with whom his wife was marooned. My Favorite Wife was RKO's second most successful film of 1940.