The actors around McCrea in this movie are second or third tier and it gives a chance to see how well, and if, he can carry an entire cast.
McCrea often said he always wanted and needed to have a great actress as the star of his comedies and romances, naming Ginger Rogers and Claudette Colbert as by far the best he ever worked with for the whole package of box office power, acting ability and screen presence. Stanwyck got his vote as the greatest actress he ever worked with but she was never the box office draw that the other two were. It seems like McCrea was quite perceptive about his career since, if you add Jean Arthur & Miriam Hopkins to the list, most of his great movies did have these amazing actresses across from him. This movie would have been much better with any of them instead of Nancy Kelly.
Kelly has a sort of Irene Dunne appeal but her timing isn't too hot and she can't dominate a shot. Her screen presence is slight and she disappears badly when McCrea is on the set. Mary Boland does a kind of Alice Brady schtick from 'Gay Divorcee' and at one point even wears an imitation of Ginger's iconic "Feathers" dress from 'Top Hat.' Lyle Talbot, who had come up at about the same time as Rogers and Colbert and Stanwyck, had already shown he wasn't remotely in their class and had, for some years now, been well down in a movie's casting credits.
At this time Joel McCrea was in the middle of his greatest period, 1937-1944, when he was displaying one of the greatest acting ranges in the Golden Age of Hollywood. Unfortunately, 'He Married His Wife' is a kind of throwback to the kinds of films McCrea was making in 1930 or 1932... decidedly lower quality stuff, this one is closer to 'Kept Husbands' or 'The Common Law' than to his contemporary work, masterpieces like 'Foreign Correspondent' and 'Primrose Path.'
