Too Many Husbands

Too Many Husbands (released in the United Kingdom as My Two Husbands) is a 1940 American romantic comedy film about a woman who loses her husband in a boating accident and remarries, only to have her first spouse reappear—yet another variation on the 1864 poem Enoch Arden by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. The film stars Jean Arthur, Fred MacMurray and Melvyn Douglas, and is based on the 1919 play Home and Beauty by W. Somerset Maugham, which was retitled Too Many Husbands when it came to New York. The film was directed by Wesley Ruggles.

A couple of months after Too Many Husbands was released by Columbia, RKO put out a movie that was more popular both then and now, My Favorite Wife, a variation on the story with Cary Grant as the remarried spouse whose former wife Irene Dunne returns from sea. Too Many Husbands was remade as a musical, Three for the Show (1955), with Jack Lemmon and Betty Grable. My Favorite Wife came back yet again as Move Over, Darling (1963), with Doris Day and James Garner after an uncompleted 1962 version entitled Something's Got to Give starring Marilyn Monroe and Dean Martin was aborted upon Monroe's abrupt death.

Plot
Vicky Lowndes loses her first husband, Bill Cardew, when he is lost at sea, presumed drowned, and declared legally dead. The lonely widow is comforted by Bill's best friend and publishing business partner, Henry Lowndes. Six months later, she marries Bill. Six months after that, Vicky is disappointed to see that Henry is removing Bill’s name from his old office, believing that Henry’s name should remain as a memorial to her late husband.

On the day his name is removed from his office, Bill shows up, after having been stranded on an uninhabited island and then rescued. He calls home and speaks with Vicky’s father, George, convincing his skeptical father-in-law that he has returned. Bill asks George to have Vicky meet him at the airport that evening. When George breaks the news to Vicky, she is appalled at having to tell Bill but does so with her father’s help. Vicky wants Bill to meet Henry at the airport and break the news, but Bill insists on accompanying her while she informs Henry. Vicky has a hard time, and Bill must stand by while Henry embraces and kisses Vicky and tries to get Bill to leave. When Vicky finally explains, Henry accuses Bill of having faked evidence of his death to avoid the 5-year waiting period for a missing person to be declared dead. Although Henry initially declares he will withdraw, Vicky does not want him to do so.

Faced with a tough choice, Vicky initially says the men must choose among themselves. Distrusting each other, two men sleep in a shared bedroom, keeping an eye out to make sure neither tries to enter Vicky’s room. Both men try to win Vicky over, while her father disapproves of the “scandal” of two husbands under the same roof. She confesses to her father that she likes the idea of the two men competing for her. Each had become inattentive in marriage, Henry by extensive traveling without her and Bill constantly occupied with business.

Vicky’s father keeps pushing her to decide, reminding Vicky that the law forbids her having two husbands. The men decide to draw lots for a paper marked by an “X” to determine who gets to stay, and Henry draws a losing blank paper, but finds that Bill has cheated by leaving both papers blank and letting Henry draw first. The men end up in a fight to reveal Bill’s blank slip of paper, which he attempts to swallow. Vicky continues to vacillate while both men play on her reminiscences of their good times together.

The two men get tired of Vicky's vacillation and take off together to punish her. After hours of their being “missing”, Vicky calls the police Missing Persons bureau and—with a slip of the tongue—reports her husbands missing when she must explain her relationship to each. After the men return, the police arrive and “Mrs. Lowndes” explains that there has been a misunderstanding, and that Mr. Cardew is a “friend.” The butler and Vicky’s father confirm she is married to “Mr. Lowndes,” but the police trick her by addressing her as “Mrs. Cardew” and she responds.

The scandal is exposed in the newspapers. The judge rules that Vicky’s bigamy is unintentional, but she is legally still married to Bill. Vicky and Bill express sympathy for Henry’s disappointment and exclusion.

Bill takes Vicky to a celebratory dinner that evening, and Henry joins them to Bill’s chagrin. Bill wants Henry to leave, but Henry says he is staying. Giving Bill travel brochures, Henry declares that he is certain Bill will get the urge to travel again, and he will be waiting. Henry asks Vicky for a consolation dance, and she agrees. Bill and Henry keep cutting in to replace each other dancing with Vicky. The film ends with Vicky dancing with BOTH Bill and Henry as a threesome, with Vicky gleefully exclaiming “We’ll have to do this often!”

Nomination
John P. Livadary was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Sound Recording.