The Trouble with Husbands (Short 1940)

The Trouble with Husbands: Directed by Leslie M. Roush. With Robert Benchley, Ruth Lee. Lecturer Robert Benchley outlines some of the pet peeves that wives have with their husbands.

“This is the first of a pair of Robert Benchley features that use Benchleyu0026#39;s dry humor to take a look at domestic relations between men and women. Both work rather well, because Benchleyu0026#39;s satire is good-natured rather than belittling. The u0026#39;lectureru0026#39; format also suits his talents well.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThis one depicts the domestic foibles of males, by illustrating some of the common things that a u0026#39;typicalu0026#39; husband does that frustrate his wife, from reading the news at an inappropriate time to inept home repair projects. Benchley is the lecturer, and he also plays the husband in the illustrative sketches. His sense of timing and his enjoyable low-key lecturing style work well as usual, and the lecture style forms a contrast with the somewhat broader actions and dialogue in the sketches.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAll of the sketches are amusing ways of looking at familiar situations. The kitchen shelf sketch is probably the best, since it is particularly on-target. Some of the details of daily life would of course be different now, but usually not to the extent that they detract from the ideas.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eLike many of Benchleyu0026#39;s short comedies, this one is based entirely on well-known themes, yet it works because of his tone and because of the careful writing. Itu0026#39;s not meant to have any big laughs, just a well-paced run of ironic humor, and in that it delivers pretty well.”