Line #3 Film/TooManyHusbands


1	[[quoteright:325:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/too_many_husbands_1940.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:325:Dancing with Husband #1 while Husband #2 glowers.]]
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4	A 1940 RomanticComedy film directed by Wesley Ruggles, starring Creator/JeanArthur, Creator/FredMacMurray, and Creator/MelvynDouglas. Based on a play by Creator/WSomersetMaugham--which in turn was [[InspiredBy loosely based on]] the NarrativePoem ''Literature/EnochArden'' by Creator/AlfredLordTennyson--''Too Many Husbands'' came out just a couple of months before another movie adapted from the same source material: ''Film/MyFavoriteWife.''
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6	A year after her husband Bill ([=MacMurray=]) has been reported drowned in a boating accident, Vicky Cardew (Arthur) has married his business partner and best friend, Henry Lowndes (Douglas). As Bill's name is being removed from the office doors, Vicky's father George (Harry Davenport) receives a phone call from Bill and is shocked to learn that he is alive. For the past year, Bill has been marooned on a DesertedIsland and is now eager to return home to his wife. Bill tells his father-in-law that he will be arriving in town that night by airplane.
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8	Vicky and Henry go to the airport to meet Bill, but [[CanNotSpitItOut neither one can summon the nerve to tell him what has happened]]. As Bill makes plans to spend his first night with his wife, they finally tell him the truth. Trouble begins when both husbands begin lavishing love and attention on their mutual wife, who refuses to decide between them and instead does her best to keep them both on equal terms.
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10	When the husbands become pals for a night and walk out on Vicky to teach her a lesson, she calls the police. When asked her relationship to the missing men, she [[SayingTooMuch answers without thinking, "My husbands."]] Bill and Henry return eventually, but Vicky is unable to conceal her illegal living arrangement from the police and is hauled off to court. Although a judge decides that Bill is Vicky's legal husband, Henry refuses to admit defeat and continues to court her. Both men vow to keep Vicky happy in the future and share a dance with her to show the sincerity of their intentions.
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12	Remade as the 1955 {{musical}} film ''Three for the Show,'' starring Creator/BettyGrable, Creator/JackLemmon, and Marge and Gower Champion.
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15	!!The film profides examples of these tropes:
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17	* AbsenceMakesTheHeartGoYonder: Vicky married Henry six months after Bill was declared dead.
18	* AccidentalAdultery: Accidental bigamy of the ThoughtYouWereDead variety.
19	* DrowningOurRomanticSorrows: Bill and Henry do this offscreen when they both get fed up with Vicky's inability to make a decision.
20	* FirstGuyWins: Subverted. Henry is introduced onscreen first, and Bill was Vicky's first husband, but neither guy really "wins."
21	* HerHeartWillGoOn: Vicky was an example of this before Bill returned.
22	* LegallyDead: Bill Cardew.
23	* LoveTriangle: Vicky loves both Bill and Henry. They both love her, and they are best friends with each other, but each wants Vicky exclusively.
24	* MarriedToTheJob: Henry is in danger of becoming this, until Bill returns.
25	* MsImagination: Miss Houlihan, the secretary at Lowndes and Cardew, was in love with both Bill and Henry herself; she fantasized about being Vicky and marrying both of them. She also becomes MsExposition when she confesses her fantasies to Vicky, as she goes through the sequence of events leading up to the start of the play.
26	* NeverFoundTheBody: Bill was declared dead on the basis of a Coast Guard's report.
27	* OopsIForgotIWasMarried
28	* ReportsOfMyDeathWereGreatlyExaggerated: Bill.
29	* RomancingTheWidow: Henry won Vicky's heart this way.
30	* SayingTooMuch: When Bill and Henry stay out all night, Vicky calls the police in an attempt to locate them. When asked her relationship to the two men, she answers, "They're my husbands" before she realizes what she's said. Cue some very persistent policemen investigating possible bigamy.
31	* SecondLove: Henry, for Vicky.
32	* TwoGuysAndAGirl: Bill/Vicky/Henry.

Context Film / TooManyHusbands