Wife, Husband and Friend (TCF 1939, Loretta Young, Warner Baxter)

In Wife, Husband and Friend, Loretta Young and Warner Baxter have separately been convinced that they have more vocal talent than they really do, and it requires several operatic and very public humiliations to convince them of the wisdom of surrendering their dreams of stardom.

Probably one of the very few films with a musical credit for Rudyard Kipling (for ‘The Road to Mandalay’). Based on a lighter novel by pulp writer James M. Cain. Remade in 1949 as Everybody Does It with Paul Douglas and Linda Darnell.

The same year she appeared in this, comedian and former vaudeville star Binnie Barnes would gain fame as Milady De Winter in Allan Dwan’s The Three Musketeers.

production details
USA | Twentieth Century Fox | 75 minutes | 1939

Director: Gregory Ratoff
Script: Nunnally Johnson, James M. Cain,

cast
Loretta Young as Doris Borland
George Barbier as Major Blair
George Irving as Doctor
David Newell as Party Guest
Edward Cooper as Butler
Binnie Barnes as Cecil Carver
Iva Stewart as Miss Carver’s Secretary
Kay Griffith as Nancy Sprague
Robert Lowery as Intern
Helen Ericson as Mrs. Spalding
Ruth Clifford as Seamstress
Dorothy Dearing as Mrs. Price
Helen Brown as Nurse
Cecil Weston as Dresser
Mary Lou Dix as Maid
Lawrence Grant as Rudolph Hertz
Warner Baxter as Leonard Borland aka Logan Bennett
Cesar Romero as Hugo
J. Edward Bromberg as Rossi
Eugene Pallette as Mike Craig
Helen Westley as Mrs. Blair
Ruth Terry as Carol
Alice Armand as Sally Bostwick
Harry Rosenthal as Bill Wilkins – Pianist
Renie Riano as Mrs. Craig
Charles Williams as Jaffee
Howard C. Hickman as Concert Manager
Harry Hayden as Hotel Manager
Lowden Adams as Butler
Ralph Brooks as Opera Patron
Tom Carroll as Call Boy
Julie Carter as Maid
Gino Corrado as Irate Opera Company Actor
Fern Emmett as Maid
Bess Flowers as Doris’ Friend
Robert Kellard as Bank Teller
Gwendolyn Logan as Mrs. Herts
Jack Luden as Party Guest
Bert Moorhouse as Party Guest
Dave Morris as Stagehand
Leo Mostovoy as Minor Role
Tom Quinn as Party Guest
Arthur Rankin as Intern
Ludovico Tomarchio as Maurico
Zeni Vatori as Opera Singer
Tudor Williams as Wotan