Ain't Love Cuckoo?

This comedy short is a special feature on the DVD release of "If You Could Only Cook" (1935) and "Too Many Husbands" (1940), two minor comedies starring Jean Arthur.

It's included here no doubt because its plot so closely resembles that of "Too Many Husbands": two men receive notification that their wives were killed in service; the wives receive the same notifications about their husbands. The "surviving" spouses then marry each other, and comedy hijinks ensue when the two couples end up in the same hotel on their honeymoons.

The comedy in this film is of the mugging at the camera, slapstick variety, and not much of it is funny (let's just say some sight gags revolving around a fold-down bed are milked for about all they're worth and then some), but the film does have one thing to recommend it: a hilarious performance from Jean Willes as a short little blonde, who does some terrific physical comedy after her character gets schookered on whiskey.

There's also a kind of funny running gag that involves a strange woman walking across the screen every so often, saying "How dare you remind me of someone I hate?" and smacking Gus Schilling in the face.

The short is introduced and wrapped up by an actress dressed as a bird sitting in a cuckoo clock. The image is actually rather disturbing -- I couldn't stop thinking about Rene Auberjonois in "Brewster McCloud."

The premise for "Ain't Love Cuckoo" as a comedy is a good one, and this plot works quite well. Columbia made this short to air with a feature film in theaters in 1946. The performers are all good, and this is a funny short in the style of goofy slapstick from Vaudeville times.

But, one wonders how audiences might have received it in June of 1946. World War II hadn't been over for a year yet, and there were many war widows and some widowers. Many parents had lost sons and daughters, siblings had lost brothers and sisters, young women had lost sweethearts, and GIs had lost buddies. So, even though no one of the four people in these two couples actually had been killed, the thought of the real losses by so many people likely dampened the humor and reception of this short film at the time.

Here are my favorite funny lines from this short.

Dora, "Does your mother have any more like you?" Georgette, "Well, I have two brothers. They're both boys." Dora, "Any sisters?" Georgette, "No, but my brothers have."

Gus, "Wake up honey, this is Gus." Georgette, "Gus is dead." Gus, "No, I'm alive. You're dead."