User Reviews

I chuckled more than once at the convoluted goings on in this farce filled with sexual innuendos. Edward Everett Horton is good in his double role as both a famous womanizing lawyer called Richard and a vaudeville impersonator called Felix. Felix wants to add Richard to his list of people he impersonates and would get permission only if he can fool Richard's mother-in-law, Maude Eburne, for a night. Meanwhile, Richard goes to meet Laura La Plante about getting a divorce from her husband, who happens to be Felix, although Richard doesn't know it. And Richard's wife, Esther Ralston, comes home from a vacation early and spends the night with Felix, disguised as Richard.

I was impressed with the smooth special effects when both Richard and Felix appear onscreen at the same time. It was done, of course, by a double exposure, but the timing of their conversations was perfect. As the befuddled butler, Spencer Charters overplays his role when he gets conflicting commands by both Felix and Richard and it was a bit tedious and predictable. The rest of the cast was fine. This is a good example of a pre-code sex farce.

The origins of the story was a 1912 German vaudeville act called "Tanzanwaltz" by Pordes Milo, Walter Schütt and Dr. Eric Urban. Although A.H. Woods is credited onscreen as the writer of the 1922 play on which this movie is based, contemporary reviews list him only as producer, with Walter De Leon and Mark Swan as the English language adaptors.

Fantasizing he is an after hours womanizer, stuff-shirted lawyer Edward Everett Horton (as Richard "Dickie" Smith) flirts with new secretary Patsy Ruth Miller (as Kitty "Minty" Minter). Tipped off by boozing butler Spencer Charters (as Andrews), Ms. Miller sets Horton up on a date with film actress friend Laura La Plante (as Diane O'Dare). The women hope to Horton will provide Ms. La Plante with a cheap divorce from vaudeville husband "Felix, the Great Zero" (also played by Horton), for non-performance of duties. Lawyer Horton agrees to let "Felix" impersonate him at home, so he can keep dates with the women.

But, wife Esther Ralston (as Madeline) comes home predictably… er, unexpectedly…

Leading man Horton acts his two roles successfully, in and out of "split screen" effect. Interestingly, he gets three leading ladies who were bigger stars during the "silent" years. Miller is charming and too briefly on-screen. Ms. Ralston appears modern and sexy. La Plante has the meatier part. And, matronly mother-in-law Maude Eburne (as Mrs. Mantel) steals scenes from everyone. The old film is sprinkled with amusing sexual innuendos. The twin Hortons are neatly directed by Russell Mack, but someone needed give the viewer some more differentiation between the two, especially during the masquerade at the house.

****** Lonely Wives (2/15/31) Russell Mack ~ Edward Everett Horton, Laura La Plante, Esther Ralston, Patsy Ruth Miller

For decades, a familiar and very stupid cliché has been used in movies and on TV--the identical stranger or identical cousin. While such things are 100% impossible and ridiculous, the idea has been used (and over-used) for years. I am usually annoyed by such productions, as these are not very similar folks but EXACTLY the same--which makes no sense at all. "Lonely Wives" is based on such a premise--and so it loses a few points for its dopiness.

Edward Everett Horton plays two people--Dickie Smith and a vaudeville performer, Mr. Zero. Zero is a professional impersonator and has managed to look, sound and behave exactly like Dickie. So, the two concoct a plan to have Zero pose as Smith but not surprisingly, lots of problems result--such as Dickie's wife apparently sleeping with Zero! While I admit that the film IS entertaining and a bit cheeky, the plot is silly fluff. But, in this case, it works a bit better than usual because I love Edward Everett Horton--he was a very funny character actor who had a chance to star in this farce. Not brilliant...but cute.

While intending to be humorous, "Lonely Wives" is more laborious than anything else. It's bright spot is the beautiful, expressive Laura La Plante. Laura's scenes provide the most laughs, not surprising since of the cast, she is the actress who seems most comfortable with comedy.

Edward Everett Horton, while decent, is a bit unconvincing in the dual role, as the two characters he plays are completely alike. Often in a movie, one Horton character is irritating; here there are two, and at times it's downright excruciating!

I'd recommend seeing this movie only if you like the actors involved. It was released on DVD in 2000 from the Roan group in the worst transfer I ever saw from them. Risque elements in the film include seeing Patsy Ruth Miller, Horton's secretary, in the shower; Laura La Plante in a number of revealing outfits including her slip; and loads of sexual innuendo. All in all, I rate the film 6/10, predominantly because of Laura La Plante!

The title and advertising for this film are salacious in that laughable pre-Code way; "All hot and bothered...wild husbands on the loose," read one. The plot that sets up this early sex farce is awfully contrived; it has a guy showing up to a lawyer's office who looks identical to him (both men are played by Edward Everett Horton), allowing the lawyer to slip out and have some fun with a couple of women at the "Whoopee Club" 'til dawn, and then his wife to unexpectedly return from a vacation all rarin' to go with the stranger she assumes is her husband. "I bought a new lace nightie yesterday that's positively indecent - wait 'til you see it!" she says. Meanwhile, one of the women the lawyer has gone out with just happens to be the other guy's wife.

It's pretty damn silly and if you're looking for something sophisticated, skip this film (which I guess you could have guessed from the title). In addition, the quality of the print which survives is pretty poor, the cast (aside from Horton) lacks star power, and the aspects of the plot in the middle of the film that focus on the butler's confusion and the mother-in-law's delight over possibly getting a grandchild are overdone and quickly become tiring.

However, it does have its moments, starting with the sassy secretary (Patsy Ruth Miller) who likes strutting across the room to show her boss her "wiggle." There is an air of subversive desire in the film; the new client (Laura La Plante) who comes to the lawyer to ask about a divorce doesn't mind if her husband stays out at night, as long as she could always depend on him doing so, so that she could have some fun herself. When the lawyer plans to meet both her and his secretary later that night, she says "But wouldn't you be embarrassed with two girls?" and he replies "Two? And me feeling positively Oriental?" There are several more lines like this, and it's kind of fun seeing two Edward Everett Horton's on the screen at the same time. In the screwball mayhem towards the end, one of the film's better sequences, watch for the moment when he hurdles over his mother-in-law, who's fallen down during a chase up the staircase. The film could certainly have been better, but it was mildly amusing.

When sound pictures arrived in the late 1920s-early 30s audiences were so fascinated by the spectacle of actors talking that any number of stage plays were simply photographed more or less as they had played in front of live audiences. No better example than this talky, very silly French-style farce based on a comedy credited to the Hungarian producer A.H. Woods famous on Broadway for importing risqué European fare to New York. As stagey as the RKO film is, it gives us a wonderful opportunity to see one of the great farceurs, Edward Everett Horton, at his best in a dual role a few years before becoming second banana in numerous Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers movies. Here, he is matched for once by the performance of the delightful Canadian actress Maude Eburne as the mother-in-law, probably the best role she ever had in a long Hollywood career of much smaller parts.

Mildly interesting comedy with Edward Everett Horton given an rare leading role. He even refers to a "bedroom farce" with one of the other women during the film.

This movie has been well reviewed by others. Only two other comments. Exactly how is it that Mr. Zero can not only can make himself up to be an exact physical double of Mr. Smith, but he can also imitate the same effete, nervous-Nellie personality of someone he has never before met? The film would have been more interesting, as in other films where someone is impersonating another, if he had a less exaggerated persona. Also, of note is the fact that the three main female leads, all more famous in the silent era than after-wards, all lived into their 90's.

The strange connection between a passionate lawyer and a vaudeville impersonator leads to romantic complications for their LONELY WIVES.

Edward Everett Horton, that nervous fuss-budget who enlivened so many films as a top character actor during Hollywood's Golden Age, here gets a rare starring role and a chance to really flex his comedic muscles. Although it's a little difficult to think of Horton as a romantic idol--even a funny one--he certainly has the lovely ladies adoring him in this lively Pre-Code farce.

Providing double trouble, Horton plays the dual roles of a stern lawyer who ‘blooms' into a Don Juan every evening at 8 PM and the talented mimic who wishes to impersonate the lawyer on the stage. Add the lonely wives--Esther Ralston & Laura La Plante--and you're likely to get a merry marital mix-up.

Patsy Ruth Miller plays the lawyer's too flirtatious new secretary. Spencer Charters staggers through the role of the household's increasingly inebriated butler. Best of all is elderly Maude Eburne, an underappreciated actress with considerable comic skills, who tackles the role of Ms. Ralston's boisterous mother. Chubby Ms. Eburne easily holds her own with either Hortons and gets to utter the film's final, funniest line.

This obviously pre-code sex farce provides the occasional laugh, but for the most part I find much of the humour laboured. The plot of mistaken identities brings to mind the kind of mix-ups the Mexican Spitfire series would perpetuate for RKO a decade later (without the sexual innuendo), and I couldn't help but think that Leon Errol would have made a far more amusing job of the dual role of Richard and Felix than Edward Everett Horton does here. While some of the stuff involving the butler's confusion is funny, I can't help but think that maybe Spencer Charters does, or has been asked to, overplay it just a tad too much. Unfortunately I found Laura La Plante neither appealing nor amusing in her role of Diane O'Dare, and Patsy Ruth Miller is only OK in her role as Minty. This leaves the most memorable character as Maude Eburn's surreal mother-in-law. Definitely overplayed as far as you could, but Maude Eburn somehow gets away with it.

"Lonely Wives" sounds scintillating like the movie is going to enter into forbidden territory. Or the title sounds like it's depressing like a bunch of married women are going to be sitting around crying about how their husbands are out. The reality? "Lonely Wives" was scintillating and comedic.

Edward Everett Horton played two characters in what's probably the earliest version of one person playing two characters that interact with one another. We first see him as Richard 'Dickie' Smith, a busy criminal lawyer who has a weakness for beautiful women. Once the clock strikes eight he behaviorally transforms to a wolf looking to dance and dine with some fine lady.

He set up a date with two women, Kitty Minter (Patsy Ruth Miller) and Diane O'Dare (Laura La Plante), at the same locale. If he could just get away from his mother-in-law (yes I said mother-in-law)--who was in charge of keeping him home while his wife, Madeline (Esther Ralston), was away--then he could live it up with the two dames.

He was given the perfect opportunity to do so when E. E. Horton's second character entered the picture. Felix, the Great Zero was a vaudeville actor who did impressions and wanted to do an impression of Dickie on stage. Dickie said that he'd give Felix the permission to impersonate him if he could stay at his house in his stead and fool his MIL until he got back. Felix agreed and the game was on. Dickie went on his date while Felix stayed in Dickie's home pretending to be him. It would've been a great plan except that A.) Dickie's wife came home early from her trip abroad and B.) Dickie was going on a date with Felix's wife unbeknownst to either of them. It became an all out spectacle from then on.

"Lonely Wives" is funny in a silly way. The comedy relies on miscommunication, double entendres, and a little physical humor. It's a comedy that works for 1931 though I wouldn't want to see the same thing today.

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Edward Everett Horton gets to not only play the lead Richard 'Dickie' Smith in this uproarious pre-code comedy but a dual part as the supporting character a famous theatrical impersonator named Zero. Dickie is a lawyer whose wife is out of town, for which he is trying to make the most of it as a ladies man. Unfortunately his mother-in-law Mrs. Mantel keeps foiling his plans...that is until the famous impersonator Zero shows up requesting to do Dickie in his act. Dickie agrees on one condition, that he play him convincingly overnight with his mother-in-law so he can meet two dolls out at a club. This plan is working out great till Dickie's wife surprises Zero by coming home early...and that is when all the hilarity ensues.

I love Edward Everett Horton, but the show stealer in this film is the Canadian actress Maude Eburne, who plays Mrs. Mantel the mother-in-law as she cleaverly tries to get herself some grandkids!

Cute by today's standards but very risqué for all it's pre-code innuendos. While not high on my list I still think classic film fans will enjoy this one. And the clothing is to die for!

This is at times a very funny comedy starring the always dependable Edward Everett Horton in a dual role. It begins as a witty comedy and ends in a sometimes confusing farce.

To stage a farce like this correctly one has to be aware of the differences between the two characters playing the same husband, but that is often lost in the viewing at least to this viewer. Also puzzling is why each of them don't recognize that the butler has confused the other in a mistaken identity. Thus the farce becomes contrived. It's hard to imagine that at no point does one of the Horton characters realize that the butler has confused the two "husbands." Yet only in one instance is that the case and only near the end

It's possible that if one of the "husbands" had been given an habitual tic for example, say an eye twitch that he could not stop, that the farce would have been more enjoyable, since the viewer could easily recognize which "husband" was in the scene at the moment. Nor would it have spoiled the plot, since people are known to develop temporary tics or blepharospasms, perhaps a nervous blinking that in some cases come and go. Not only would it have spoiled the plot but it would have added humorous complications to the plot, with such dialogue as, "Why are you twitching like that suddenly?" and when the other husband appears, "I see you got rid of your twitch!" etc.

Still, despite these flaws, which may be minimized upon a second view, this is great entertainment.

This film is based on the 1922 play, renamed "Who's Who" - a better title than "Lonely Wives" - that starred Charles Ruggles. While Ruggles would have been perfection as Smith/Zero, this film version is hilarious, due primarily to the inventive comedic performance of Horton. Also superb are the butler - a tippler who thinks he's going crazy - and Horton's guard dog mother-in-law. It's a pleasure to watch the adorable Ralston, La Plante, and Miller - 3 femme stars from the silent era who have featured roles - contribute so deftly to the merriment. As the plot thickens, the tempo speeds up so that the second half is a whirl of exits, entrances and misunderstandings. Surprisingly, but believably, all wrongs are righted in the end.

Even though this film from the Mill Creek comedy collection was a poor visual and audio transfer from a TV showing, it's amazing just how good this comedy is and how much I enjoyed it.

Maybe it is as not as good as I rated it, but I thoroughly enjoyed this little movie. It has lots of little saucy lines in the script and the main character, a defense attorney, delivers his with style and wit. His secretary is quite a little number as well.

I am sure this does not rank up there in any list of great early films, and I had never even heard of it, but I came across it on youtube today, posted in full, and completely enjoyed it.

When a client comes to call, the lawyer tells him he can only spare five minutes. The client flatters him and he responds "maybe 10 minutes." Not hysterical but the way he says it brought a laugh.

Overall, maybe a silly little film, but not a bad one, and fun to watch.