THAT'S MY WIFE

Written and filmed December, 1928. Released by MGM, March, 1929. Produced by Hal Roach. Supervised by Leo McCarey. Directed by Lloyd French. Two reels.
Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Vivien Oakland, William Courtright, Charlie Hall, Jimmy Aubrey.   

STORY: Ollie's uncle has promised him a large inheritance, as long as he's happily married. Bad timing, however, as Mrs. Hardy has just stormed out on her husband, due to his loyalty to permanent houseguest Stan. Ollie attempts to pass off Stan, dressed in drag, as his wife. The ersatz Hardys and the uncle attend a local nightclub, where the ruse is revealed when a waiter attempts to hide a stolen necklace down the back of Stan's dress.



JB: Take the domestic comedy of Their Purple Moment, the suggestive embarrassment gags of Liberty and add Stan in drag posing as Ollie's wife, and you've got yet another wonderful little comedy known as That's My Wife.  In fact, here is as good a moment to note that since the moment the two were officially teamed back in The Second Hundred Years, there had been hardly a misstep along the way with the arguable exception of Early to Bed.  Not every silent short was a classic, but most of them were above-average comedies and all featured a rich variety of gags and situations that explored the possibilities of these two new screen characters.  The great experiment - teaming journeyman screen comic Stan Laurel with  hard-working character actor Oliver Hardy - worked so well from that moment onward that in hindsight it is often difficult to fathom why the powers that be - Hal Roach, Leo McCarey, the boys themselves - didn't recognize it sooner.  That the team was relatively new and clicked so amazingly well is one of the main reasons they were able to easily glide from silent to sound film with such ease.

Copyright © 2012 John Larrabee, John V. Brennan

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