The trouble with Mr and Mrs Smith is that screwball comedy doesn't blend well in Mr Hitchcock's sense of humor. His sense is rather subtle, expressed through ironical situations built up to give a light background to the main story. Screwball comedy is a whole genre where the comic situations make the plot go forward.
That's why here the Hitchcock humor works way better than the screwball comic simply because that's what he knows best. As a screwball comedy it lacks rhythm, a major problem all the good acting in the world will never make up for. Hitch fails to unleash his directing out of the serious concern about married life and the storyline constantly hesitates between the stiff Robert Montgomery and the whimsical Carole Lombard. Thus the best things come along the way: visual ideas to depict this weird couple in the beginning and a couple of good gags afterwards.
The best gag is certainly that one, halfway through the movie, at the the Florida Club -- not too dissimilar to the unknitting pullover gag in the beginning of The 1934 Man who Knew too Much -- where Mr Smith tries to make his 'illegal' wife jealous. The last 30 minutes are emblematic of the major failure. Out of the blank the set moves to Lake Placid where it lags till one last good but classical scene, making the reuniting of the couple merely incidental in the course of the movie while it should have been a climax.
Hence Mr & Mrs Smith is not a great Hitchcock which shows us the sense of humor is rather different than the sense of comedy. Yet most Hitchcock movies display a very effective sense of humor... provided he feels at ease with the subject matter.
That's why here the Hitchcock humor works way better than the screwball comic simply because that's what he knows best. As a screwball comedy it lacks rhythm, a major problem all the good acting in the world will never make up for. Hitch fails to unleash his directing out of the serious concern about married life and the storyline constantly hesitates between the stiff Robert Montgomery and the whimsical Carole Lombard. Thus the best things come along the way: visual ideas to depict this weird couple in the beginning and a couple of good gags afterwards.
The best gag is certainly that one, halfway through the movie, at the the Florida Club -- not too dissimilar to the unknitting pullover gag in the beginning of The 1934 Man who Knew too Much -- where Mr Smith tries to make his 'illegal' wife jealous. The last 30 minutes are emblematic of the major failure. Out of the blank the set moves to Lake Placid where it lags till one last good but classical scene, making the reuniting of the couple merely incidental in the course of the movie while it should have been a climax.
Hence Mr & Mrs Smith is not a great Hitchcock which shows us the sense of humor is rather different than the sense of comedy. Yet most Hitchcock movies display a very effective sense of humor... provided he feels at ease with the subject matter.