Holy Matrimony is a 1943 comedy film directed by John M. Stahl and released by 20th Century Fox. The screenplay was based on the 1908 novel Buried Alive by Arnold Bennett. It stars Monty Woolley and Gracie Fields, with Laird Cregar, Una O'Connor, Alan Mowbray, Franklin Pangborn, Eric Blore, and George Zucco in supporting roles. Screenwriter Nunnally Johnson was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. Plot Priam Farll is a famous English painter and recluse who has been living in seclusion in various places around the world for nearly 25 years with solely his valet, Henry Leek, for company. In 1905, Farll reluctantly travels to London from the British East Indies to be knighted. However, upon their arrival, Leek becomes very ill. Farll summons Dr. Caswell, but Leek succumbs to double pneumonia and dies. The doctor mistakenly assumes it is Farll who has died, and the publicity-hating artist is only too glad to assume Leek's identity. When the King himself shows up to pay his respects, Farll learns that "his" body is to be buried at Westminster Abbey. Trying to end the masquerade, he only manages to convince his sole relative, a cousin he has not seen since childhood, that he is a lunatic. Farll sneaks into the funeral service, but is ejected for causing a commotion and is only saved from arrest by the arrival of Alice Chalice, a widow with whom Leek had been corresponding. It turns out that Alice had applied to a marriage bureau and had been put in touch with Leek. Since the photograph she was given shows both Leek and Farll, she too assumes that Farll is Leek. Impressed by her cheerful nature, combined with her practicality and quick thinking, he marries her and settles in Alice's comfortably large home in Putney. They are happy together. Years pass. One day, Leek's widow, Sara, and three adult sons show up to reclaim their father. Farll is unable to convince her that he is not Leek without giving away his true identity to his wife. Once more, Alice saves her husband through quick thinking, pointing out that the Leeks will be disgraced by having a bigamist as a father and husband. The Leeks hastily depart. Alice herself does not care whether her husband is a bigamist or not. When Alice's stock dividends are unexpectedly cut off, Farll tries to calm her worries about