Are Husbands Necessary?

For the film with the working title Are Husbands Necessary?, see Honeymoon in Bali.

Are Husbands Necessary? is a 1942 American comedy film directed by Norman Taurog and starring Ray Milland and Betty Field.^[3] It follows the misadventures of a wacky wife and her sometimes exasperated, but loving, banker husband. The film's screenplay was adapted by the husband-and-wife writing team of Tess Slesinger and Frank Davis, from the novel Mr. and Mrs. Cugat, the Record of a Happy Marriage by Isabel Scott Rorick. This novel would later be a source for the related 1948 radio series My Favorite Husband starring Lucille Ball, which itself would evolve into the television series I Love Lucy.

Are Husbands Necessary?
Directed by	Norman Taurog
Written by	Tess Slesinger Frank Davis
Produced by	Fred Kohlmar
Starring	Ray Milland Betty Field Patricia Morison
Cinematography	Charles Lang
Edited by	LeRoy Stone
Music by	Robert Emmett Dolan
Production company	Paramount Pictures
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date	June 15, 1942 (1942-06-15)
Running time	80 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$552,000.[1]
Box office	$1,050,000 (US rentals)[2]

A one-hour Lux Radio Theatre adaptation of the film, featuring George Burns and Gracie Allen, aired February 15, 1943, on CBS Radio.^[4]

Cast

• Ray Milland as George Cugat
• Betty Field as Mary Elizabeth Cugat
• Patricia Morison as Myra Ponsonby
• Eugene Pallette as Bunker
• Phillip Terry as Cory Cartwright
• Richard Haydn as Chuck
• Charles Dingle as Duncan Atterbury
• Kathleen Lockhart as Laura Atterbury
• Leif Erickson as Bill Stone
• Cecil Kellaway as Dr. Buell
• Elisabeth Risdon as Mrs. Westwood
• Charlotte Wynters as Mrs. Finley