I Love My Husband, But! (1946) Online

This is one in a long series of Pete Smith Specialties that began around 1934 at MGM. This, one of the comedies, is a scream. It is all about the loving wife, and her idiot uncaring oaf of a husband (played by Dave O'Brien.)

Totally narrated by Smith, we are shown different examples of things that husbands do that irritates their wives. The wife in this series plays visual comedy well.

Besides this one, there is one on WIVES, and MOTHERS-IN-LAWS. The last one is my personal favorite.

These shorts are rarely seen, even on the Turner Classics TV channel. Several in the series won Academy Awards for best short-subjects!

If she did nothing else but lift that one eyebrow, Dorothy Short would be worth watching.

And though Dave "Tex" O'Brien is one of my motion picture heroes (and one of the greatest screen cowboys ever), even he comes in second in watchability to Dorothy Short in this thoroughly enjoyable mini-movie.

Oscar Wilde said that re-marriage is the triumph of hope over experience, but surely the experiences of the married couple in this short would overcome any hope.

Oh, sure, by now all the events are clichés, but as performed by the great O'Brien and the charming Short (who were in real life married to each other), and with a brief appearance by the lovely Lila Leeds, "I Love My Husband ..." is fun and is really not to be missed.

Painfully hilarious Pete Smith Specialty has DAVE O'BRIEN as the man of the house driving his wife insane with his totally inept attempt to fix things.

She's a dreamy-eyed lass until he leaves for work and she discovers a mess in the bedroom and the kitchen, along with a note reminding her to get his shoes cleaned "because I'm so particular." Thoughtful hubby doesn't want to awake her in the morning so he tiptoes around until he can't keep the door behind him shut. He slams it with all his might and naturally she's given a rude awakening.

Other skits are devoted to "The Constant Loser" who can't find anything without her help, "The New Hat" in which he fails to compliment her on a new hat but it's the first thing he notices about his next-door neighbor, and "Breakfast Grouch" in which she becomes so irritated that she pushes a grapefruit into his face.

My favorite is the handyman segment, where he tries to put a nail in the wall for drapes and makes a mess of the kitchen area.

Final skit has her making the wrong play during a card game, which drives him over the top--but once again, she has the last laugh.

Funny stuff, extremely well acted and written by Dave O'Brien himself.

. . . or even an average outing for that Snarky Narrator of Yesteryear. It may not be Mr. Smith's biggest waste of film overall, but among the many Smithereens I've endured, I cannot recall one that's less worthy of your consideration than I LOVE MY WIFE, BUT! This BUT is poorly organized, poorly acted, and poorly paced. While the Wife's reenactment of James Cagney's "Tricks you can do with half a grapefruit at breakfast" from PUBLIC ENEMY may elicit the beginning of a snicker, the follow-through here is botched enough to choke off a full chuckle. The drawn-out final bit featuring a hapless handyman Husband and the crude use of a Telestrator is Cartoonish enough that it's more likely to draw a change of channels than the full-fledged cringing it might deserve were it less over-the-top. If there's a comparable I LOVE MY WIFE, BUT! it probably was burned before being circulated, since the Real Power of Matriarchal Hollywood always has been in Women's (andor Wive's) hands, even before the Day of Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons.

How many people had guest towels hanging in their bathrooms in the 1940s? How many do today? I suspect not that many. Oh, sure, my mother always had one of the nicest towels to put out if we were expecting company. My wife and I did the same thing. Well, maybe couples with no families kept one hanging all the time; but I doubt it.

That little scenario from this comedy short is just one of a few that miss the mark. None of them are really things that might have ticked off a wife to a point shown here. So, this Pete Smith production just isn't very funny – or good.

"I Love My Husband, But," probably got no more than a chuckle in its day – just for the title. I doubt if anyone enjoyed it for comedy, or remembered it afterwards. It remains as dull today. The nail pounding scene and ensuing house destruction might work with the Three Stooges, but even they weren't so dumb as to not use a ladder. It was so obvious what was going to happen to the guy that there was no humor in it.

In short, this short is short on imagination.

Other than Laurel and Hardy (who were subtracted to MGM through Hal Roach Studios), it is amazing that the most prestigious film studio in the 1940s (MGM) made such dull short subject films. I've watched a few of the so-called "Pete Smith Specialties" and have never been all that impressed due to the rather smug narration by Smith and the usual second-rate acting (overacting) by the cast. While I LOVE MY HUSBAND, BUT! is far better than the average Pete Smith film, it is sad to say that represents about as good a film as you'll find in the series.

This film consists of a frustrated wife realizing all the jerky and thoughtless things her husband does. Again and again, she notices all these actions and by the end of the film she's ready to kill the clod. All this is set to the sarcastic comments by Smith and the acting is incredibly broad--with lots of bulging eyes.

Overall, it's watchable and mild fun but also rather sloppy. Not a must-see.

Wonderful Pete Smith short about all the things husbands do that drive their wives crazy. Dave O'Brien once again stars (and also directs). He's great fun as usual. But the big star of this one is Dorothy Short, who plays the wife. She was married to O'Brien for real at the time and the two work well off each other. Her exaggerated expressions are a hoot. The final bit is the best, involving O'Brien trying to fix a curtain rod bracket in the kitchen with hilarious results.

Dave O'Brien is largely forgotten today but he proved in these shorts what a great comedian he was. Dorothy Short appeared in several of these as well and she's terrific. And, of course, what would a Pete Smith Specialty short be without that patented sarcastic narration by Smith himself? The Pete Smith shorts are all good fun and this one's better than average.