Fifty Million Husbands

Fifty Million Husbands (1930)

*** (out of 4)

Hilarious short has Charley Chase enjoying a quiet evening at home since his wife is away until there's a knock on the door. The previous tenant informs Chase that his wife has left him so he'd like to look around the place one final time. Soon the man starts moving the furniture around and things turn worse when his wife shows up for one final look. This Hal Roach produced short is certainly a good one to show people if they're unfamiliar with Chase's sound films. His work with Roach, MGM and Columbia resulted in highly mixed films but this one here is certainly a good one. I think what makes this one work so well is that Chase allows a lot of it to play out like a silent. The majority of the laughs from him come from his reactions to what the ex-tenants are doing. Whenever the husband starts crying it's not the tears that are funny but instead it's what Chase's reaction is that's funny. Chase's facial gestures are priceless and the way he's constantly looking at the camera gets some very big laughs. The maniac pacing by the director keeps everything going at a quick pace, which pays off as well. The non-stop laughs makes this one of the best Chase shorts out there and we also get strong supporting work from Edward Dillon, Charlie Hall, Edgar Kennedy and Ruth Hiatt. Tiny Sandford is hilarious as the husband.

Christine Maple is out tending her ill mother, so husband Charley Chase intends to spend the evening home reading. There's a knock at the door, and in comes Tiny Sandford, who begins to rearrange his furniture, followed by soon-to-be-ex-wife Ruth Hiatt, who begins breaking bric-a-brac. By the time Miss Maple comes home, ready for a divorce of her own, it's a free-for-all and officer Edgar Kennedy can't make heads nor tails of the situation.

There are lots of funny bits in this Chase short subject, but Miss Maple is not a practiced comedian; nor is there the tight story line typical of Chase's shorts that makes sense of the situations. Still, there's always Edgar Kennedy's slow burn to amuse the watcher, and an unusually large speaking part for Tiny Sandford, a Roach regular who spent much of his screen time on the Lot of Fun playing cops in bit parts, even if his roles outside might expand to Porthos in Fairbanks' THE IRON MASK.