Lonely Wives (1931)
10/10
Horton's Hoo
20 April 2004
The strange connection between a passionate lawyer and a vaudeville impersonator leads to romantic complications for their LONELY WIVES.

Edward Everett Horton, that nervous fuss-budget who enlivened so many films as a top character actor during Hollywood's Golden Age, here gets a rare starring role and a chance to really flex his comedic muscles. Although it's a little difficult to think of Horton as a romantic idol--even a funny one--he certainly has the lovely ladies adoring him in this lively Pre-Code farce.

Providing double trouble, Horton plays the dual roles of a stern lawyer who ‘blooms' into a Don Juan every evening at 8 PM and the talented mimic who wishes to impersonate the lawyer on the stage. Add the lonely wives--Esther Ralston & Laura La Plante--and you're likely to get a merry marital mix-up.

Patsy Ruth Miller plays the lawyer's too flirtatious new secretary. Spencer Charters staggers through the role of the household's increasingly inebriated butler. Best of all is elderly Maude Eburne, an underappreciated actress with considerable comic skills, who tackles the role of Ms. Ralston's boisterous mother. Chubby Ms. Eburne easily holds her own with either Hortons and gets to utter the film's final, funniest line.
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