Guest Wife (1945)

Christopher Price, a small-town bank executive, continues to be loyal to and idolize his boyhood friend, Joseph Jefferson Parker, a famous war correspondent. But Chris's wife, Mary, is none to fond of Joe and tired of her husband's idolizing. On the eve of the Price's second-honeymoon trip to New York City, Joe arrives and tells Chris that he needs someone to pose as his wife in order to fool his boss in NYC, who thinks Joe got married to an overseas woman while on an assignment. Chris pushes Mary into posing as Joe's wife. In New York, this leads to many complications and misunderstandings, with Mary finally deciding to teach Chris and Joe a lesson by making them believe she is in love with Joe.

Director: Sam Wood
Cast: Claudette Colbert, Don Ameche, Dick Foran, Charles Dingle, Grant Mitchell, Wilma Francis, Chester Clute, Irving Bacon, Hal K. Dawson, Edward Fielding, Gertrude Astor, Wilson Benge, James Burke, James Conaty, Maurice Costello, Mary Currier, Helen Dickson, Franklyn Farnum, Clyde Fillmore, Mary Forbes, Edward Gargan, Sam Harris, Harry Hayden, Robert Emmett Keane, Milton Kibbee, Arthur Loft, Harold Miller, Charles R. Moore, Pat Moriarity, William H. O'Brien




Christopher Price, a banker, and his wife Mary prepare to leave the small town of Keetoosen, Ohio, to go on a second honeymoon in New York City. Before they can leave, however, Chris receives a telegram from his old childhood friend, noted foreign correspondent Joe Parker, telling them that he is in transit to their home. Upon his arrival, Joe tells Chris and Mary that he has been ordered back to New York by his boss, A. T. Worth, who thinks that Joe is married to Mary, because Joe once lied to him that he had gotten married in order to take a vacation. Chris agrees to help Joe continue the deception, over Mary's objections. When they discover that the train to New York is full, Chris stays behind in Keetoosen while Joe and Mary head off. Arriving in New York, Joe and Mary are whisked off the train and taken directly to the publisher's office, where Worth has arranged a press conference with photographers and newsreel cameras. Later, Worth tells Mary how touched he has been by her letters, especially one in which she describes being nursed back to health by her "loving" husband. Meanwhile, back in Keetoosen, Chris is pulled off the New York train by Arnold, his boss, who accuses him of living with another man's wife, having seen Joe and Mary's photograph on the front page of a Cleveland newspaper. Chris is then forced to stay in Keetoosen to avert a bank scandal, much to Mary's chagrin. Later, Mary is recognized at a nightclub by a shoe salesman from Keetoosen, and she and Joe try unsuccessfully to convince him that she is "Mrs. Parker's" Turkish double. Chris finally arrives in New York the next evening, and his attentiveness toward "Mrs. Parker" soon attracts the attention of both the hotel detective and Worth. Upset at being continually separated from Chris, Mary lies to Susy, Joe's old girl friend, that she is in love with the reporter. Mary then accepts Worth's invitation to stay at his Long Island estate, despite Joe's objections. Later, Chris sneaks onto Worth's estate, where Joe has been convinced by Mary that she is in love with him. When Joe rejects her advances, Mary pretends to contemplate suicide. Seeing Joe and Mary out on the balcony in their pajamas, Chris becomes jealous, kicks open their bedroom door, punches Joe and leave Worth's estate with Mary in tow. Finally recognizing Mary's hoax, Joe pretends to be the noble husband who has let his wife go for her own happiness and accepts Worth's comforting. In turn, Mary informs Chris how happy she is that he has finally "carried the ball," placing himself before his friend, Joe.

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