User Reviews

Child-hating George O'Hanlon comes home to find wife Jane Harker knitting baby booties. In typical Joe McDoakes fashion, he spends the months going mad.

It's a typically funny entry in the series, a slapstick effort that would eventually be replaced by television situation comedies. There are some well-known performers who show up, including occasional leading man Edward Gargan, Chaplin comic Leo White, and perpetual dumb cop Fred Kelsey as.... guess what?

One of the things that always amuse me about these movies is the slim profile Miss Harker has even as she is on a gurney about to give birth.

Amusing little Joe McDoakes short gets its humor out of the man losing his marbles when he finds out his wife is about to have a baby. He even ends up going with her to the hospital, stretcher to stretcher, as she goes into the delivery room and he goes into the pathological unit.

Some of these Joe McDoakes shorts become a bit tedious with their overstated humor which is never of the subtle kind. But this one does put our hero into a number of funny situations, all because he's overreacting to becoming a father.

The bit with the brick was a bit much--but, hey, it's just a comedy short so what can you expect? I didn't expect to see his daughter, Josephine--years later--turning out to look just like the old man.

It's amusing enough if you like this sort of thing and there's a good twist at the end.

In this entry, Joe McDoakes is at first a young curmudgeon "who hates kids and kids hate him." And then his wife tells him that a "little visitor" is coming to their home. At the the idea of his becoming a father he increasingly becomes the stereotypical and endearing nervous father-to-be. He takes his wife to the doctor's office but it is he who is sick and nervous. The months go by and a fortune teller tells Joe that the baby is going to a boy and Joe immediately starts dreaming that some day his son will become President. In the best routine, his wife has odd food requirements and asks Joe for raw rhubarb in the middle of the night after the grocery store has closed. Joe gets into the store by egging on a guy to break the grocery store window by throwing a brick at him (which Joe dodges). Of course, it's a silly routine but quite funny. Another silly - but cute - routine is when Joe practices to be a father by putting a diaper on the family dog. His wife Alice drives them to the hospital as he's too nervous. This is a fun short and except for the ending, is funny throughout.

When this short begins, Joe McDoakes apparently hates children...though his wife soon announces 'they're going to have a little visitor'*. Soon, Joe is all nervous about having a son and the film is about average for one of these films....that is, until the ending. You just have to see it...it's worth seeing just for the sight of George O'Hanlon playing McDoakes Jr.!

*Even for a 1940s film, this one is ridiculous in how it deals with pregnancy--a term never even mentioned in the film! Mrs. McDoakes never shows any signs of pregnancy--even in the seventh month and this lends credence to the notion that kids back then must have been incredibly confused about sex and children!

So You're Going to be a Father (1947)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Decent entry in the Joe McDoakes series has poor ol' Joe playing a man who hates kids so of course he comes home from work one day and his wife tells him they're expecting. Joe has a change of heart as he believes his son will become President so he sets out to learn all there is to know about becoming a father. There's no doubt that director Bare and star George O'Hanlon took a simple subject and tried to get every laugh they could out of it. This entry has all the jokes you'd expect but there's just something missing from previous entries. I think the biggest problem is that the unexpected father routine has been done many times so there's nothing too fresh or original here. There are a few good moments including one scene where the wish wants some rare food so Joe must set out in the middle of the night to get it and has to start a fight. O'Hanlon, as usual, is very good in the role and certainly gets more out of the material than anyone else could.

Joe McDoakes (George O'Hanlon) hates kids and they hate him back. That's fair. One day, his wife tells him that they're pregnant.

Joe McDoakes is a comedy short series from Warner Bros. I don't know anything about this series or O'Hanlon. He seems to be a fine mugging comedian. This premise is try-and-true standard comedic material. It's old fashion. It works. He does some fun stuff with the premise. It's notable that they don't show her with much of a belly or anything to do with the birth. Like I said, it's old fashion like the comedic cross-dressing. This is all good clean old fashion comedy.

When his wife tells him she's pregnant Joe McDoakes becomes an emotional wreck. At first he is on top of the world, but when the moment arrives and they go to the hospital he is in such a panic that he is taken into the psychopathic ward. Another terrific comedy short made by George O'Hanlon.

This is a terrific Warner's comedy short! Given that it's 1947 you've got the production code dictating Joe's wife looking decidedly un-pregnant (and obviously never mentioned) and twin beds. But leave it to director Richard L. Bare and George O'Hanlon to make this fun (O'Hanlon must've been a real character around the Warner's lot in the 40's, ironically remembered today mostly as being the voice of George Jetson). Joe's a well meaning emotional wreck and rush to the hospital looks like a predecessor to Desi's routine in I Love Lucy 4 years or so later. The sight of O'Hanlon in drag at the end is a hoot. If you want to ease into the long running Joe McDoakes series of comedy shorts, this one's a good place to start. 10/10 as shorts go!

THIS IS ARGUABLY the best and funniest episode in the whole and entire 63 one reel comedies. There is plenty of great interplay between Joe, his wife Alice and the others who get in his way as he attempts to have HIS baby.

THE PACING SEEMS even just a bit faster than the usual Mc DOAKES short; not that it is rushed in any way or by any economic considerations. It is just a case of good management of the available time and film footage. It never looks to be rushed, padded or otherwise "cheap" in any way.

THE CENTRAL PREMISE of a guy who, to say the least, does not get along with kids and suddenly finds his own wife knitting a tiny sweater, certainly has been used at least once or twice before. Still, for a comedy short of about 10 minutes duration (or perhaps because of it) the production team manages to breath a certain freshness into what could otherwise degenerate into a total misfire.

EVEN THOUGH THIS series is designed as a sort of live action version of the surreal and escapist world of the animated cartoon, the combination of Producer Gordon Hollingshead, Director Richard Bare and (of course) Star George O'Hanlon all managed to delver a deliver a movie short in which we actually cared about the hero and to look forward to seeing his next exploit.

BUT IT WAS not only those above mentioned virtues that made for a unique and beloved series. There is one other attribute that the Mc DOAKES pictures possessed that, in the final analysis is most important. They are genuinely funny and performed their function well in "warming up" an audience for the Feature Film that followed.