Are Husbands Necessary?

Are Husbands Necessary? is a 1942 American comedy film directed by Norman Taurog and starring Ray Milland and Betty Field. It follows the misadventures of a wacky wife and her sometimes exasperated, but loving, banker husband. The film's screenplay was adapted by the husband-and-wife writing team of Tess Slesinger and Frank Davis, from the novel Mr. and Mrs. Cugat, the Record of a Happy Marriage by Isabel Scott Rorick. This novel would later be a source for the related 1948 radio series My Favorite Husband starring Lucille Ball, which itself would evolve into the television series I Love Lucy.

A one-hour Lux Radio Theatre adaptation of the film, featuring George Burns and Gracie Allen, aired February 15, 1943, on CBS Radio.

Cast

 * Ray Milland as George Cugat
 * Betty Field as Mary Elizabeth Cugat
 * Patricia Morison as Myra Ponsonby
 * Eugene Pallette as Bunker
 * Philip Terry as Cory Cartwright
 * Richard Haydn as Chuck
 * Charles Dingle as Duncan Atterbury
 * Kathleen Lockhart as Laura Atterbury
 * Leif Erickson as Bill Stone
 * Cecil Kellaway as Dr. Buell
 * Elizabeth Risdon as Mrs. Westwood
 * Charlotte Wynters as Mrs. Finley