You Can't Fool Your Wife

Strictly a B-film programmer, YOU CAN'T FOOL YOUR WIFE would have more accurately been titled YOU CAN'T FOOL YOUR HUSBAND, because it's the hubby who has the wool pulled over his eyes by a plan that backfires when his wife attempts to disguise herself as a Latin beauty.

It's one of those light-hearted romantic comedies with a screwball touch that LUCILLE BALL got to do during her RKO days. And fortunately, although he has a rather thankless role, JAMES ELLISON has good chemistry with her and is a bit less bland than usual in a role that reveals he had a flair for this kind of romp.

EMMA DUNN has the kind of mother role that was a forerunner of the parts THELMA RITTER would play in the '50s--quick with the sarcastic one-liners that have her treating her son-in-law like a bum. ROBERT COOTE has a fine time as a gentleman who comes up with the scheme to save Ellison's marriage.

It spins its tale in just a little over an hour and ends up with a rather bittersweet ending on a false note, and much too abruptly.

Andrew and Clara Hinklin (James Ellison and Lucille Ball) are an old married couple. While they aren't chronologically old, their marriage is routine and Andrew is a mousy man with little excitement in his life....and he likes it that way. However, when the boss drafts him into entertaining an important client, his life changes dramatically. Andrew arrives home....late and drunk. The next night, he arrives very late as well...but sober. While he tries to explain it to Clara, she is having none of this and doesn't believe him. It's made much worse by her mother, who lives with them, as she keeps throwing gasoline on the fire and does whatever she can to keep the two apart. Instead of tossing 'mother' out on her ear, Andrew leaves and stays away from home for a few days.

In the meantime, Clara is having second thoughts and decides she needs to fight to keep her man...and a makeover is in order as a start. Unfortunately, both Mr. and Mrs. Hinklin don't realize that another woman will show up at the same costume party they both attend....and with her mask on, she is the spitting image of Clara!

This is a very unusual film because I have never seen Lucille Ball less attractive and plain...and this was necessary for the plot but must have posed a challenge for her. Most actresses DON'T want to be plain or dowdy! But here she seems to take to the role and it works. In her other persona (with a mask), however, she's less convincing...and sports a very strange accent. A but more subtlety and some dialect coaching would have helped....though the movie still is modestly enjoyable despite this. Overall, a film that started off very well and sort of lost its way when Ball decided on the alter ego.

Fans that have only seen Lucy in screwball comedy roles may be surprised that she was a very fine actress and can handle drama with great pathos. This film sort of tries to be a screwball comedy, popular in that era, but fails due to a choppy pacing, erratic editing and direction. It's occasionally feeble script doesn't help yet this is still an entertaining film for fans of Lucille Ball. Watch this film and you'll root for Lucy, wishing she had a better film success as you see her real talent in one of her first leading roles.

Half the problems in the marriage of James Ellison and Lucille Ball are due to the fact there's the mother-in-law from hell living with them in the person of Emma Dunn. I could identify with that, my parents had one of the grandmas living at home and it wasn't pleasant for the odd one out.

Taken partly from The Guardsman and partly from The Awful Truth, You Can't Fool Your Wife is an amusing domestic comedy showing some of the talents of Lucille Ball in that direction. She plays a dual role here, Jimmy Ellison's who fears the marriage has gone stale after a year and a South American bombshell. No need for a voice coach to get the accent right, she had the best teacher in the world in that newlywed husband she had at home.

Also in the cast is Robert Coote playing a droll English visitor who runs the London office at Ellison's business. The man likes to party hearty and wants a companion to share the romping with. He really unknowingly starts all the marital discord.

The last 15 minutes with the two Lucys at a masquerade party has a lot of good laughs in it.

You Can't Fool Your Wife holds up pretty well after almost 80 years.

If you're a Lucille Ball fan and want to see a bit of her dramatic range (even though this is a screwball comedy--kind of), this is a great little film that shows off more of her depth. I was incredibly impressed, being only familiar with her TV shows and comedy movies like Fancy Pants, Yours Mine, etc., and the pretty bad Desi/Lucy movies. It helps that this film is actually very well written--although it does, as the other commentator on this board points out, have a "sloppy" ending. Still, the dialogue is witty and intelligent, especially the lines slung by Ball's "mother," and Ball herself gets to do more than just character impressions--which she gets to do as well, and here you'll see the early Lucy Ricardo shining through in all her comedic glory.