So You Want to Hold Your Husband (1950) User Reviews

Joe might just be the biggest jerk in this one!

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 15 October 2017]

In all the Joe McDoakes shorts, Joe is pretty dumb. However, in this one he's also unbelievably thoughtless and selfish.

The story begins with the narrator recounting Joe's marriage ten years ago. They went from a happy couple to a sad wife due to her incredibly selfish husband. Alice McDoakes wants to make her marriage better but everything her counselor tells her to do backfires because Joe is a completely hopeless jerk. In fact, when she ultimately leaves him, weeks pass before Joe even realizes it!! What's next? See the short...and see the wacky finale.

All in all, this is a very good installment. The ending seems pretty lame...but hold tight, it's a corker!

A McDoakes short not quite up to the par for comedy

[SimonJack · 6/10 · 23 April 2021]

This is a Warner Brothers short in the Joe McDoakes behind the 8-ball series that it ran before feature films in theaters in the mid-20th century. "So You Want to Hold Your Husband" isn't quite at the level of comedy that most of these shorts are. These served another purpose besides warming up an audience before the main feature in movie theaters of the past. They provided a hedge of time when one wasn't quite able to make it to the theatre before the start of the show. That extra 10 minutes plus a cartoon saved many a late movie goer from missing the opening of a film or from being able to get popcorn before the feature started.

Having marital problems, Alice McDoakes (played by Phyllis Coates) goes for marriage counseling. The name of the firm on their door is the funniest thing in this short - Lamb-Curry and Rice.

Here are the best lines in this short.

Alice McDoakes, on the phone with her mother, "No, mother, it's not my imagination. He's just not like he was when we got married."

Alice McDoakes, on the phone, "But, mother, I tried that. I never use my own razor now."

Funny McDoakes Short

[Michael_Elliott · 17 April 2010]

So You Want to Hold Your Husband (1950)

*** (out of 4)

After ten years of marriage the fire has gone out between Joe and Alice McDoakes. Alice decides to go to a marriage councilor to learn how to win Joe back but nothing seems to work. This entry in the series is certainly one of the better ones but I must admit to being somewhat shocked to see how dark some of the subject matter was. There's a hysterical gag centered around a suicide so that there should tell you this isn't your typical McDoakes short. The film gets off to a very good start as we see the Joe before marriage, during his honeymoon, the next year and then on down the line as he becomes grumpier and grumpier. The funny thing here is that for the most part the film stays with Alice as she tries to convert Joe but fails. The entire sexist gag of a woman's place being in the home is beaten to death here but there are plenty of laughs that come from it. Both actors give it their all and really go out of their way to get a laugh no matter what. I was surprised to see how much of a jerk Joe was here as he's certainly not the likable character we know.

A Salute To "Unsung Hero", Musical Director, William Lava!

[redryan64 · 10/10 · 13 February 2016]

IT WAS BOUUND to happen. Previously (in 1947-being 3 years earlier), the same domestic situation was addressed, albeit from the opposite side of the equation. The earlier installment concerned Joe's having some doubts about his wife's having misgivings about their marriage.

THIS IS NOT to say that one could brand this as a sort of "Carbon Copy"* or, in more modern nomenclature, a clone. We found that this entry into the series attacked the subject matter in a most refreshing manner.

THERE IS CERTAINgraybearsLY a great influx of revamped sight gags, with the recurring use of the Mc Doakes' king sized Great Dane house pet generating the gags. Additionally we have the unique experience of what looked like an old, obvious and mediocre laugh getter. But the production team's tweaking this ever so slightly resurrected its effect.

WE'RE NOT SAYING that this gag ending was the funniest in the series, but it surely was the most bizarre! NOTE * For most of our readers, who are just a trifle younger than graybeards like Schultz and meself, "Carbon Copy" refers to a now archaic method of making copies of documents by having sheets of inked on one side paper between the number of copies required.

What's that, Schultz? You ask "what's Carbon Paper?" Oh just look it up in the encyclopedia!