Laurel and Hardy: This is my wife

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Movie
German title This is my wife
Original title That's my wife
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1929
length 20 minutes
Rod
Director Lloyd French
script HM Walker ,
Leo McCarey
production Hal Roach
camera George Stevens
cut Richard Currier
occupation

This is my wife is an American short film comedy directed by Lloyd French from 1929. The comedian duo Laurel and Hardy play the leading roles in the silent film .

action

Oliver Hardy had taken his simple-minded friend Stan into the household two years ago with him and his wife. After Stan caused all kinds of hustle and bustle there, Mrs. Hardy is now leaving her husband, not without knocking over two flower vases in the hallway. In anger, Oliver demolishes his entire living room and Stan follows his example. In this crisis situation, Oliver's elderly Uncle Bernal suddenly appears on the doorstep. Oliver speculates on financial support for his extremely rich uncle and also on his inheritance. Ollie cleans up quickly and greets his uncle, who finally wants to meet Ollie's wife. Ollie makes Stan dress up as Mrs. Hardy; because if Uncle Bernal found out that Oliver and his wife had split up, it would bury Ellie's dreams of big money.

Oliver introduces Stan - as his wife "Magnolia Hardy" - to his uncle with the words: "There is not so much to see with her - but she is funny!" Stan finds it difficult to disguise as a woman and he always falls into a male disguise Behaviors back, he keeps slipping on his high heels and wants to accept a cigar from Uncle Bernal. In the evening, both of them have to visit a restaurant with Uncle Bernal, where a drunk sits at their table and hugs Stan in women's disguise. Oliver intervenes as "her" husband and pours soup over the head of the drunk, which he takes with composure and then disappears. The situation becomes more complicated when a thieving waiter in a restaurant steals her valuable collar from a lady. The restaurant is searched for the collar, so the thief hides it in the back of Stan's dress.

Oliver now tries to fish the collar out of Stan's dress, which leads to ambiguous situations several times and causes astonishment and indignation among the restaurant guests, especially Uncle Bernal. When they both fall on the stage of the restaurant and Stan's dress slips, it becomes obvious that he is not a woman. Uncle Bernal announces that he will bequeath his fortune to the Dog and Cat Hospital, while Oliver mourns his wife and Bernal's money. Then the drunk pours soup over him.

background

The film was shot at Hal Roach Studios between December 11 and 16, 1928, and was released in American cinemas in March 1929. That's my Wife was one of the last silent films by the comedian duo.

The story of the film, which was written by the later director Leo McCarey, was partly taken from the film Along Came Auntie , released three years earlier , in which Oliver Hardy and Vivian Oakland (Mrs. Hardy) had already played. The original script of That's My Wife initially stipulated that Mrs. Hardy happened to be sitting at a next table in the restaurant and Uncle Bernal would start a flirt with her. The ending was also different in the original version: Stan confesses the hoax to Uncle Bernal and his friendship with Ollie ends, while Ollie and his wife reconcile again.

Reviews

That's my Wife is one of the lesser-known works of the comedian duo. Still, film historian and Laurel and Hardy expert William K. Everson wrote in 1967: “Comparatively unknown, this is perhaps the funniest and best of the many films in which Laurel masquerades as a woman. That single theme [of the film] is treated with infinite variety over time. ”Film critic Leslie Halliwell said of the film that he kept up his main joke - Stan disguising himself as a woman - and that the restaurant farce had brilliant timing.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. "That's my Wife" at Lordheath  ( page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.lordheath.com  
  2. ^ John Walker, edited (1994). Halliwell's Film Guide. New York: HarperPerennials. ISBN 0-06-273241-2 , p. 1182