Rating summary
| Movie |  | 3.5 |
| Video | | 3.5 |
| Audio | | 3.5 |
| Extras |  | 0.0 |
| Overall | | 3.5 |
Guest Wife Blu-ray Movie Review
Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 5, 2013
Lovers of cult television (and you know who you are) may recall with fondness a now little remembered gem (actually, a Screen Gem(s),
but I digress) of a series called Occasional Wife, which starred Michael Callan as a machinating junior executive who “hires” his
downstairs apartment neighbor Patricia Hardy to pretend to be his wife so that he can climb the corporate ladder, where only happily married
men made it to the upper echelons of management. Occasional Wife looked to be a sizable winner early in the 1966-67 television
season, but when its ratings fell, it was cancelled after one year (though in a rather unusual move at the time, NBC briefly announced it was
considering bringing it back as a 1968 mid-season replacement, though that never actually happened). One has to wonder if the series’
creators Lawrence J. Cohen and Fred Freeman had perhaps chanced upon the ebullient 1945 farce Guest Wife, for it presents much the
same general plotline, with a machinating Don Ameche “hiring” Claudette Colbert to pretend to be his wife, after having claimed for
some time that he’s been married to her. The twist in this particular formulation is that Colbert’s character is already married to a man
played by Dick Foran, whose character just happens to be the best friend of the Ameche character.
While
Guest Wife relies on an increasingly improbable set of circumstances (much like any good farce), it’s buoyed by some rather smart
comedic writing and nicely tuned performances from its star trio of Colbert, Ameche and Foran. The interesting thing about this slyly provocative
piece is how it actually concentrates on the “fake” couple, implying that they are in fact happier than the actually married duo. Colbert toes a
fine line here, properly coquettish while never forsaking a basic decency which is anchored in her character’s belief that her husband needs to
stand up to his friend, for whom he has repeatedly made sacrifices over the years.
Guest Wife isn’t very well remembered these days—
much like
Occasional Wife, in fact—but it’s well worth checking out.
Guest Wife Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality
Guest Wife is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Olive Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.37:1. This release falls pretty much
fully in line with other Olive releases of this vintage. The elements have typical age related wear and tear, including occasional scratches, flecks
and specks, but overall contrast is quite strong, blacks are generally very solid and gray scale is decently modulated. The film does have a few
soft looking patches, but on the whole, this is another solid looking effort from Olive that follows their standard operating procedure of no
restoration or digital tweaking.
Guest Wife Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality
Guest Wife's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio Mono track has some very minor damage and distortion, with a few isolated pops and
crackling occasionally becoming noticeable in the upper midrange. This is a very slight anomaly in what is otherwise a perfectly listenable, if
obviously pretty shallow sounding, track.
Guest Wife Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras
No supplements are offered on this Blu-ray disc.
Guest Wife Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation
Guest Wife features some very smart writing and enjoyable performances, especially from Colbert, who is delightfully ambivalent
throughout the film. This Blu-ray continues Olive's batting average of providing nice looking and sounding vintage films. Recommended.
