In Name Only was the second film in a row for both director John Cromwell and Carole Lombard. Earlier in 1939 they had collaborated on Made For Each Other which was another romantic melodrama where Lombard co-starred with James Stewart. You'll find a lot of similarities with the plot and the tone of the film is almost identical.
Widow Lombard rents a cottage from a wealthy family to spend a summer with her daughter, Peggy Ann Garner. One day while attempting to fish in a stream that had long been fished out, she runs into her landlord who happens to be Cary Grant. Grant's something of a player, but he's trapped in a loveless marriage to Kay Francis who has everyone fooled, including Grant's parents Charles Coburn and Nella Walker.
In fact another of Francis's friends, Helen Vinson, makes a play for Grant, but he's only got eyes for Lombard.
The problem is that Francis likes being Mrs. Cary Grant and all the perks that lifestyle brings. At some point it's made abundantly clear that she won't let Grant go under any circumstances.
In Name Only is dated because at the time divorce laws were a whole lot stricter, especially in New York State where until the Sixties the only grounds for divorce is adultery. It's like Joel McCrea's complaint about his wife in Sullivan's Travels, he's been trying to catch his wife colluding, but she won't collude or is being real discreet about it.
Grant and Lombard register well as lovers just as she and Stewart did in Made For Each Other. Francis though really steals the show and the script is done well in that her evil is shown by increments. You really do believe that Coburn and Walker believe she's the injured party right until the very end.
In Made For Each Other the plot device bringing everything to a head is the sickness that Stewart and Lombard's little boy is suffering. Here it's Grant who feeling depressed has too much Christmas cheer and ends up with pneumonia. His illness and the gathering together of all the principals brings matters to a close.
Grant's performance is similar to what he later did in Penny Serenade and Lombard shows what a fine dramatic actress she is. Interesting that both of them made their primary reputations in comedy. But it's Kay Francis who you will love to hate in In Name Only.
Widow Lombard rents a cottage from a wealthy family to spend a summer with her daughter, Peggy Ann Garner. One day while attempting to fish in a stream that had long been fished out, she runs into her landlord who happens to be Cary Grant. Grant's something of a player, but he's trapped in a loveless marriage to Kay Francis who has everyone fooled, including Grant's parents Charles Coburn and Nella Walker.
In fact another of Francis's friends, Helen Vinson, makes a play for Grant, but he's only got eyes for Lombard.
The problem is that Francis likes being Mrs. Cary Grant and all the perks that lifestyle brings. At some point it's made abundantly clear that she won't let Grant go under any circumstances.
In Name Only is dated because at the time divorce laws were a whole lot stricter, especially in New York State where until the Sixties the only grounds for divorce is adultery. It's like Joel McCrea's complaint about his wife in Sullivan's Travels, he's been trying to catch his wife colluding, but she won't collude or is being real discreet about it.
Grant and Lombard register well as lovers just as she and Stewart did in Made For Each Other. Francis though really steals the show and the script is done well in that her evil is shown by increments. You really do believe that Coburn and Walker believe she's the injured party right until the very end.
In Made For Each Other the plot device bringing everything to a head is the sickness that Stewart and Lombard's little boy is suffering. Here it's Grant who feeling depressed has too much Christmas cheer and ends up with pneumonia. His illness and the gathering together of all the principals brings matters to a close.
Grant's performance is similar to what he later did in Penny Serenade and Lombard shows what a fine dramatic actress she is. Interesting that both of them made their primary reputations in comedy. But it's Kay Francis who you will love to hate in In Name Only.