Flora Finch is running an anti-smoking organization. She talks pretty Betty Gray into being anti-tobacco. Betty in turn goes to her husband, Hughie Mack, that if he as mayor doesn't outlaw tobacco throughout the village, she'll get a divorce. So he does. The trouble is that he, like all the men and most of the grandmothers, love their cigars.
In a day when I can't smoke tobacco in New York City, but marijuana seems to be fine, this looks like another of those movies that had been coming out for ten years at this point, predicting disaster should women receive the franchise. Don't snicker about sexism; one of the first was by Alice Guy. Mostly it's a satire of the various abolitionist movements, which didn't and still don't recognize that outlawing something only drives up the price and prevents intelligent regulation.
It's also not a particularly fine comedy. Director George Baker seems to be trying for Keystone-style slapstick. Instead he winds up with chaos.
In a day when I can't smoke tobacco in New York City, but marijuana seems to be fine, this looks like another of those movies that had been coming out for ten years at this point, predicting disaster should women receive the franchise. Don't snicker about sexism; one of the first was by Alice Guy. Mostly it's a satire of the various abolitionist movements, which didn't and still don't recognize that outlawing something only drives up the price and prevents intelligent regulation.
It's also not a particularly fine comedy. Director George Baker seems to be trying for Keystone-style slapstick. Instead he winds up with chaos.
