I Love My Wife But! (1947) User Reviews

Hilarious Pete Smith short has hubby steaming over his wife's behavior...

[Doylenf · 7/10 · 7 January 2009]

For all those who worry that this short is too sexist, be aware that there was a similar short called I LOVE MY HUSBAND BUT to give equality to the man/woman thing.

This is Pete Smith's Dave O'Brien at his funniest. We see him in various situations getting hot under the collar as he waits for his wife while she fusses with her hat and hair in front of a mirror; awakes in the morning with a bunch of chatter; continues gabbing over the phone while he's at the office; fights over placement of a lamp the husband wants to move in order to read comfortably; keeps him waiting while she buys a hat while he glances around and keeps having eye contact with a woman buying a corset; is chased away from his stamp collection to mow the lawn; is covered with soot when he tries to clean the fireplace at her request; and finally, sees her destroy the family car when she can't back out of the garage despite his guidance.

It's concise, funny and very on target--and certainly something every male in the audience can appreciate even if women find it a bit overdone.

Oh You Kid!

[boblipton · 7/10 · 17 June 2020]

A Smith called Pete narrates this Dave O'Brien short about how Dave -- who also directs as David Barclay -- in which he's a man who loves his wife, but..... she can't get out of the house for primping or she gabs while he's trying to sleep, or she won't let him relax at home, or.....

Dave's wife is played by his real-life wife, Dorothy Short. Davewas a talent for physical performance and starred in many a short or western. He does a beautiful fall backwards from a chair in this one. Later, after Pete Smith stopped making shorts, he went to work as a gag writer for Red Skelton.

No guy in his right mind would even consider . . .

[tadpole-596-918256 · 7/10 · 23 August 2020]

. . . marrying an individual of the opposite sex after seeing this documentary, I LOVE MY WIFE BUT! This expose reveals that the inefficient primping and vain posing such a union would entail will prevent him from ever being on time for anything ever again (save for his own funeral). Furthermore, a wedded wench's incessant babbling of inane chatter is bound to drive the male spouse nuts, as will her imposition of irrational and totally arbitrary "rules." When not violating a deluded former bachelor's personal space, such a ball-and-chain is sure to nag and nitpick away at her matrimonial licensee. The "Mrs." is bound to drive her hubby bonkers, if she's not too busy wrecking the family vehicle!

Good Fun

[Michael_Elliott · 3 April 2008]

I Love My Wife But! (1946)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Pete Smith short has Dave O'Brien playing a husband in love with his wife but she has several habits that drive him nuts. This comedy features all sorts of small jokes involving the wife including her taking too long to get ready, not letting the husband do anything, making him work instead of play and not being able to drive the car. I can just imagine seeing this in a theatre back in 1946 because I can see all the husbands on the floor having a laughing fit while the women sit there getting mad. The film is certainly sexist but it's all done in good charm. There are several funny sequences, although I wouldn't put this among the best Smith shorts out there. The driving sequence is probably the highlight of the movie.

old fashioned bit.... spoilers

[ksf-2 · 7/10 · 4 March 2021]

Spoilers -- WOW. one could never say most of that now! this highlights the hen pecked husbands, as the wives chitter chatter on the telephone. and take too long to get ready to go out. the old days, when the husband and wife roles were defined in very black and white terms. something as simple as buying a hat, could take DAYS! some slapstick comedy, as the husband goes with her, and awkwardly trips over furniture. the Mrs. keeps denting more fenders as she drives the family car. how many chauvinistic cliches can they fit into a nine minute shortie?? done in 1947, when the soldiers had all just come back from war. directed by Dave O'Brien, who also plays the husband. his poor wife is Dorothy Short. fun, if a reminder of the days of the VERY old. Dave and Dorothy were actually married for a while... she died young at 47.

Humorous and well done, but point of view is dated

[theowinthrop · 8/10 · 5 January 2009]

Pete Smith is looking at what he would have termed the foibles of the "little woman" in 1947. The idea that Smith (and most Hollywood film comic writers) held in that year and for awhile to come was that the moment you got married the friction of personalities between husband and wife was such that marriage became irritating. Friction inevitably develops between couples (or friends for that matter), but the idea that the wife was at the basis of it dates this comic short. Still the presentation is good, so that it will produce chuckles.

Dave Brian (who directed as well as starred in this film) is married to a woman who takes forever to perfect her appearance before she leaves the house. She will always find a curl of hair out of place, or a hat not on right. As a result Brian is driven to trying to push her out of the house (this backfires - she has to straighten herself out again), and later falls off the front porch waiting for her. Subsequently he is shown bone tired from a day at the office, but he is not allowed to relax as dinner will be served in a few minutes. He can't even lay his head back on his recliner because he'll get hair grease on a doily. Next he is trying to work on a stamp album, but the missus keeps giving him chores to do (like mowing the lawn and cleaning the soot out of the chimney). He is dragged to watching her choose a hat, only to find she can't make up her mind. Ironically he tries to look away and keeps watching an elderly lady trying to purchase a corset. Later he finds his wife annoying him by borrowing his handkerchief in a movie house, and accidentally he slaps a woman next to him (the one who was buying the corset). And finally the best sequence wherein the wife keeps injuring their car while trying to drive it out of their garage quickly.

That the husband might make things easier for the wife is never looked at by Smith - he was trying to make capital out of the goofy behavior of the wife. It is an amusing short, but I imagine that a bunch of self-respecting women (they don't need to be feminists) would chase Smith, his writers, and O'Brien with pitchforks today for the way this one-sided comedy was made.