The title characters of Wife, Husband, and Friend are Loretta Young, Warner Baxter and Binnie Barnes. Although given Binnie's actions in the film the characterization is open to interpretation.
Loretta and Warner are the proverbial happily married upper middle class couple, he in the contracting business and she the socialite with a dream of being a concert singer. Seems to be a hereditary thing, Loretta's mother Helen Westley had similar ambitions to the chagrin of her father George Barbier.
Baxter tries to humor her, but that only encourages and his humoring becomes an expensive proposition. Enter real opera singer Binnie Barnes who accidentally discovers its Baxter who's got the voice in the family. Baxter also attracts her in other ways. In the meantime Loretta's got Cesar Romero, a pianist buzzing around her hive.
I'd love to know who dubbed the voices of all these people, the film from 20th Century Fox lists no credits. The major fault in the film is the casting of Baxter. He's a good actor, but hardly a blue collar type. When the film was remade ten years later, Paul Douglas played Baxter's role in Everybody Does It.
Even with Baxter miscast, the film's got a lot of amusing moments, especially on the opera stage with Baxter. He carries the comedy part off real well. Unlike A Night At The Opera where the Marx Brothers set out to disrupt the opera, Baxter does his whole shtick quite accidentally.
I'm glad TCM unearthed this long buried classic, it's dated, but still has some good moments. Loretta beauty sparkles and Binnie Barnes was never better as the wisecracking other woman.
