Merry Wives of Reno

I Tivo-ed this one because it features Margaret Lindsay -- I've liked her in all her movies, but they're aren't that many of them.

About a half-hour in, though, I was about to give up it -- it has a great cast, but you've seen them all playing the same parts in better movies.

Then, suddenly, one fleecy performer took this movie into her hooves and made it her own. Who was that talented sheep thespian who portrayed Eloise, the Hugh Herbert character's pet sheep?

I sheepishly admit that she won me over -- she had me "Baaaaaaaahhh." If Asta the terrier could make so many movies, why not Eloise?

So tune in, if only to enjoy perhaps the only screwball comedy with a Merino movie star.

Ruth Donnelly, a solid supporting actress in literally dozens of films, went to Hollywood when the Great Depression hit Broadway [where she was established as a young character woman (GOING UP et al.)and near where she had made a few silent films] with a plan to try movies for six months to a year. She came back to the East Coast some three decades later, figuring that her career was over ... and replaced Patsy Kelly in NO, NO, NANETTE on Broadway. Ruth was a true lady ... and one of the best friends anyone could have! I adored her. You haven't lived until you've sat next to Ruth during a special screening of THE MERRY WIVES OF RENO and listened to her asides about the film and the other actors in it. No bitchiness; that was not Ruth's style. But ... funny?! You know it! Guy Kibbee played her husband and Glenda Farrell was a co-star. Ruth, who had not seen the film (this screening was sometime in the '80s) since its initial release, could remember every scene and every moment. She was truly a remarkable talent, a remarkable lady, and a remarkable friend. I miss her greatly.

Three couples head for Reno divorces and cause each other mischief along the way in this wild and witty comedy.

Donald Woods and Margaret Lindsay are the cute couple: As the picture opens, they are celebrating their first wedding anniversary. It's all lovey-dovey to start with but things quickly go wrong when her anniversary gift to him goes missing.

Their neighbors, Ruth Donnelly and Guy Kibbee, are the bickering couple: "In the 19 years I've been married to you," Kibbee complains as they sit down to eat, "I've never gotten a chance to find out whether you could cook or not. You've always started a quarrel before I got started eating."

Glenda Farrell and Hugh Herbert are the wacky couple. Herbert is a sheep fancier who takes a sheep named Eloise around with him everywhere, including their ritzy apartment; Farrell finds amusement other ways, such as inviting over handsome boat salesman Donald Woods, who mistakenly thinks he's there to sell her a boat.

The entire cast is excellent; perhaps best of all is Frank McHugh as a smooth-talking bellboy with many talents. The script is full of snappy dialog and a rather delightful disdain for anything remotely serious, although eventually the many divorce and infidelity jokes start to show the film's age—it aims at being naughty but seems a bit labored instead.

It's pretty much pure silliness, and very entertaining for those of us who love to see a great cast of character actors cutting loose.

Like other Warner Brothers comedies of the early 30s, pacing and sarcasm make this film. Here, it's the wry take on why marriages succeed or fail that makes the movie so funny. Never mind love, communication, or fidelity. What makes or breaks a marriage is how willing you are to admit you're an idiot too. So funny and so true-- just thinking about the premise makes me laugh. The acting is very good, the script, with asides too funny and too numerous to trivialize out of context, is even better. There is a whole philosophy here, a whole view of life that dispenses with the psychobabble prominent even then in a storm of hastily delivered truths. Slapstick abounds, although the sophisticated wit is the best thing about this movie.

"Merry Wives of Reno" is a comedy about love and divorce. The story focuses on three couples in particular. Two of the couples live next door to each other but are quite different. One is a couple that hate each other (Guy Kibbee and Ruth Donnelly) and they can't wait to divorce. The other is a younger couple (Margaret Lindsay and Donald Woods) who are deeply in love....though the husband, in hindsight, is pretty dumb! And, the third couple...well the wife (Glenda Farrell) is a bit of a tramp...and her husband a clueless idiot with an unnatural affection for a sheep (Hugh Herbert...and I am NOT exaggerating!!). How do all these couples come together in the story? See this comedy and find out for yourself!

This Warner Brothers comedy is quite enjoyable and clever. And, while the comedy is broader and the film less star-studded, it sure reminds you a lot of "The Women" (from Warner Brothers' rival studio, MGM). In fact, both would make a dandy double-feature.

By the way, although I liked this movie quite a bit, I really hated Roscoe Ates in the film and am at least glad he wasn't in the movie much! His stuttering shtick just was never funny and really grates on you!