Our Wife (1931)
7/10
A same sex marriage in 1931!
31 October 2018
Warning: Spoilers
A 1931 L&H comedy short, available at YouTube, in both the colorized and original B&W format. I would say it's an average L&H comedy. It begins with Ollie singing in his bedroom, looking at a picture of his sweetheart, as they hope to be married soon. His gay mood is interrupted by a loud crash in the kitchen, where Stan is washing dishes. The scene shifts to the bedroom of his sweetheart, Dulcy, where she looks at a picture of Ollie. and is ecstatic. However, when her father (played by Jimmy Finlayson) sees the picture, he goes berserk. Evidently, he's had some unpleasant experience with this Oliver. He absolutely forbids the marriage., and locks her in her room. Dulcy calls Ollie and tells him the bad news. He suggests they elope at midnight, and she's agreeable. Meanwhile, Ollie sprays his mouth with something that's supposed to make it smell nice, I assume. Instead, it makes his mouth feel like it's on fire! He runs around hollering. Finally, Stan goes to the ice box and pulls out an ice cube. That quells Ollie's discomfort, but apparently Stan also knocks another cube on the floor, as Ollie soon goes flying into the dinning room, head first. He lands on the dining table, square in the middle of the modest wedding cake, causing the table to collapse, and various things on the wall to fall........Ollie and Stan sneak around Dolcy's house, having brought a ladder. Stupid Stan rings the doorbell(this being midnight), and the butler answers. Stan tells him there's going to be an elopement! Ollie climbs the ladder, but one leg is resting on Stan's foot. He tilts the ladder to get it off, and Ollie crashes through the downstairs window. Dulcy drops her suitcase on Ollie's head, causing the suitcase to open and spill things out. Also, an alarm clock in it starts ringing loudly. Ollie can't figure out how to turn it off, so gives it a heave, breaking a window somewhere. From his 2nd story window, Finlayson again forbids the marriage, before the window falls on his neck. Presumably, Dolcy descends the ladder. Then, Stan throws some rice on the couple, as well as an old shoe, which hits Ollie in the head. Too early, says Ollie..........Stupid Stan has hired a very small car for the elopement. Dulcy is quite heavy too. Thus, the 2 have quite a struggle to fit themselves in. Stan makes things even worse, by laying over them, initially, before he transfers to the back seat........Eventually, Ollie drives to the house of the justice of the peace(Remember, this is in the wee hours of the night). Stan rings the bell, and the justice's wife, in curlers, answers. She has an inane conversation with Stan, finally calling for her husband, played by the one and only Ben Turpin. Ben, of course, has an extreme wandering eye, that makes him look cross eyed. He picks up a book, and rapidly reads some gibberish, before pronouncing them man and wife. But, because of his impaired vish, he has married Ollie to Stan!, kissing Ollie, as the bride!.........Actually, Ben wasn't born cross-eyed. When he started his showbusiness career, he wasn't cross-eyed. Apparently, a trauma to his head induced it(I've never heard of such). It was a lucky accident for his career , as it made him clearly stand out. He feared that ,someday, his eye might revert to its normal orientation.
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