Lend Me Your Husband (1935) watch online HD

British farces of the 30s inevitably seemed to be based on stage plays and laboured and unsophisticated by todays standard.This film was probably considered daring by the standards of the day and i am not sure that this would have been playable in the States as it came after the clampdown of the code.Although distributed by (RKO)Radio it was clearly a quota quickie designed to fit the bottom half of a double bill.,and destined to be seen only in the UK.John Stuart,usually seen playing policemen eg Blackmail,in this instance plays,rather uncertainly,a husband who is romancing his wife's best friend,Babs,His wife feels that this is something that will blow itself out as she knows how infuriating Babs can be.So John goes off to a cottage in the country with Babs and sure enough anything that can go wrong will go wrong.In the end Sturat is more than happy to go back to his understanding wife.Although it sets a brisk pace unfortunately the film is just not funny enough and remains no more than a typical quota quickie.

My first exposure to a British quota quickie and acting and screenplay on this one is superior to your typical American poverty row effort (but production values are not as slick as a B from a major studio).

A fairly funny unpretentious bedroom farce, feels like a stage adaptation but apparently isn't.

The third act shows a sliver of Noel Coward type wit peeking through some good sight gags and slapstick.

If it is true as rumored quota quickies were mostly screened when the sweepers were doing their job with no audience in the seats, they probably had a good time with this one.

John Stuart decides to run away from his wife, Nora Swinburne, with Nancy Burne, but after only a few hours with her, he's fed up and ready to go back to his wife.... until he discovers that his wife knows.

I certainly didn't expect much, what with George King one of the producers, but under the direction of Frederick Hayward and some graceful camera work by old hand Geoffrey Faithful (who had begun with Hepworth and would continue working through the beginning of the 1970s), there's a lot to admire in this one. Annie Esmond has a very nice role as Stuart's acid-tongued mother-in-law. Between some well-delivered, funny lines and a short running length that doesn't give it a chance to drag, it's a fine little film.