{"id":40177,"date":"2023-06-23T18:55:37","date_gmt":"2023-06-23T22:55:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=40177"},"modified":"2023-06-23T18:58:42","modified_gmt":"2023-06-23T22:58:42","slug":"the-bootleg-files-should-wives-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2023\/06\/23\/the-bootleg-files-should-wives-work\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bootleg Files: Should Wives Work?"},"content":{"rendered":"

BOOTLEG FILES 834: <\/strong>\u201cShould Wives Work?\u201d (1937 Oscar-nominated comedy short starring Leon Errol). <\/p>\n

LAST SEEN:<\/strong> On YouTube.<\/p>\n

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO:<\/strong> None.<\/p>\n

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS:<\/strong> It fell through the cracks.<\/p>\n

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE:<\/strong> Maybe as part of an anthology of comedy shorts.<\/p>\n

Unless you are too-serious student of film comedy, there is a good chance that you either never heard of Leon Errol or you may only know of him through a few supporting performances in other comics\u2019 movies. But during the 1930s Errol became a prominent as the star in a series of comedy shorts made at RKO. These films are mostly forgotten today, although one of them \u2013 the 1937 \u201cShould Wives Work?\u201d \u2013 secured a niche in movie history through its Academy Award nomination for Best Short Subject (Two-Reel).
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But if anyone is discovering the Australian-born Leon Errol by way of \u201cShould Wives Work?\u201d, it is safe to say that film is the wrong point of entry. Errol was an inventive and funny man but this film is anything but inventive and funny.<\/p>\n

In his RKO shorts, the bald and diminutive Errol played a dyspeptic man who is always at odds with his domineering wife and a hostile world that has little patience for his bumbling. In \u201cShould Wives Work?\u201d, Errol gets into a spat with his wife (played by Vivien Oakland) \u2013 he is angry that her hat boxes are cluttering up the hallway closet and she is angry that he won\u2019t give her money for either another hat or a new dress. She recalls having more pocket money when she was working during her pre-marriage days and declares she is getting a job in order to buy the things she wants.<\/p>\n

Errol is a salesman in a company with a curious rule \u2013 a married man and his wife cannot work together for the firm. When a rule breaker is fired, Errol takes his job \u2013 but discovers to his horror that his wife landed a job as his boss\u2019 secretary, albeit using her maiden name. Errol\u2019s boss invites him and his new secretary to his home in order to go over a sales campaign \u2013 but the boss then insists that Errol bring his wife. Errol arranges for his colleague Carson to have his wife pretend to be Mrs. Errol \u2013 but things get complicated when Carson also gets invited.<\/p>\n

The second part of \u201cShould Wives Work?\u201d involves frantic attempts by Errol, Carson and their respective wives to maintain this ridiculous charade while Errol\u2019s boss deals with the badgering from his wife. When everyone is invited to spend the night at the boss\u2019 home, there is an endless skein of mistaken identities and labored excuses regarding why Errol and his alleged wife are trying to avoid each other during the night.<\/p>\n

\u201cShould Wives Work?\u201d has the feel of a pre-Code comedy with a plot that wades through the waters of perceived adultery, but the film bogs down into a slamming door farce as Errol, Carson and their respective spouses vainly try to maintain the deception of a puritanical boss who doesn\u2019t understand why the men continuously attempt to avoid their supposed wives. <\/p>\n

As the center of the farce, Errol is a strangely unlikeable character. He is immediately identified at the start of the film as cheap and disorganized, and as the film progresses he is increasingly annoying in his vain attempts to rein in his wife while spinning countless lies to his boss regarding his supposed domestic bliss. As stated earlier, anyone coming to Errol for the first time will do better in his work playing the dual roles of the affable Uncle Matt and the foggy Lord Epping opposite Lupe Velez in the lighthearted \u201cMexican Spitfire\u201d series or as boxer\u2019s manager Knobby Walsh in the \u201cJoe Palooka\u201d series.<\/p>\n

\u201cShould Wives Work?\u201d should have been a springboard for Leslie Goodwins, the film\u2019s director. This was the second Oscar-nominated short that he created for RKO, following the 1936 \u201cDummy Ache.\u201d But RKO didn\u2019t see his potential behind the camera and he never rose to A-list titles. Still, he had an active career, directing Errol in the \u201cMexican Spitfire\u201d films and helming a roster of B-level features before finding a lucrative career directing for television.<\/p>\n

The Errol shorts for RKO were syndicated for television during the medium\u2019s early years, but they\u2019ve been mostly out of sight for the longest time. A bootleg of \u201cShould Wives Work?\u201d can be found on YouTube, but to date there has been no great push to restore and re-release the funnyman\u2019s films for home entertainment. <\/p>\n