So You Want to Wear the Pants

This Joe McDoakes short begins with Joe (George O'Hanlon) and his wife (Phyllis Coates) having a HUGE argument. Both thinks their job in life is the worst and cannot understand why the other isn't more sympathetic. So, they magically change bodies--complete with Joe's body having his wife's voice and vice-versa. Then, each experiences the drudgeries associated with working at the office or being a harried housewife. Much of it is mildly funny--but a few of the scenes (such as late in the film) are quite funny. While this short is far from a must-see, it is funny--something that distinguishes it from some of the other films in the series. Well worth seeing and one of the better entries in the McDoakes shorts.

With George O'Hanlon, Phyllis Coates, Emory Parnell, Fritz Feld, DEl Moore, Richard Reeves, Suzanne Ridgeway, Jackson Wheeler, James Seay, Emmett Vogan. *** Stars.

YOU HAVE TO give the production team extra credit for striving to be just a trifle different. (Did we say 'trifle?') Although George O'Hanlon regularly contributed ideas, gags and did some co-writing along with Director, Richard L. Bare, he seldom got credited for doing so. With this episode, he gets recognized in print.

WITH THE FREQUENTLY used subject of matrimonial strife, it has occurred to us that Joe & Wife Alice (Phyllis Coates) had forged a screen image that was oft not unlike the Don Ameche/Frances Langford teaming on Radio as THE BICKERSONS. Of course this was not their only strong suit, but it is a strong one and the similarities are striking.

BUT WITH THIS installment, we see that the envelope being pushed along up to and even beyond its limits. The story has a transfer of personalities, characteristics and behavior between the two. It is as if their total selves have been swapped; with their attitudes, voices and emotional reactions exchanged.

WE CAN OFF hand think of only a couple of similar on screen situations that compare. Although widely separated in chronology, the gags and resulting humor are quite the same in: Laurel & Hardy's 2 reeler, THICKER THAN WATER and Walt Disney Pictures' FREAKY Friday.

THE MAIN DIFFERRENCE and where the story lines diverge are in that this is a married couple and it involves gender identity situations.

BEING THAT THE Korean War was raging, the inclusion of the Military as well as the Selective Service System is neatly brought into the fray as a catalyst in moving the story along to its concluding fade out gag.

WITH THE VERY different view of the roles of the Female & Male of the species, many today would not be so very amused with the resulting gags. But that would not include us. We just clung to our guns sand kept on reading our Bible.

George O'Hanlon as Joe McDoakes and Phyllis Coates as Alice quarrel over whose job is tougher. So psychiatrist Fritz Feld hypnotizes them so they each have the other's viewpoint. This means that Miss Coates talks with O'Hanlon's voice and vice versa in this typically silly and funny episode in the series.

Richard Bare produced, wrote (with O'Hanlon) and directed this series for Warner Brothers, which gave him the chance to cast the guest roles with some skilled comic actors. The situations these shorts did were standard plots for comedy shorts for decades, but the handling was often zany.

So You Want to Wear the Pants (1952)

** (out of 4)

This here turns out to be one of the weaker entries in the Joe McDoakes series but it's still worth watching just because of how utterly bizarre it is. In the film Joe and Alice are having a major fight as each one thinks their job is harder on the body. The end up at a psychiatrist who accidentally hypnotizes them. Soon Joe thinks he's Alice and Alice thinks she's Joe. What makes this short so strange is that the two actors voice the other parts. Hearing Phyllis Coates voice coming from Joe's mouth is a very bizarre thing to see and I can't imagine how folks back in 1952 took it. The effect works well as it gets a few laughs here and there but I can't help but think at the same time it costs the film a few laughs just because you can't get over the effect. They have Joe prancing around like a woman and it's not ever funny but instead it's just rather creepy and bizarre. The effect of Alice sounding like Joe isn't much better but I do give both actors credit as they perfectly match each others facial gestures and body movements.

This is a Warner Brothers short in its series of McDoakes behind the 8-ball. These 10- to 15-minutes comedies usually went with a Merrie Melodies cartoon as warm ups with movie previews before the feature films played on theater screens. These bring back fond members of the theater days in the mid-20th century. I enjoy seeing these when WB or another studio includes its shorts with feature films on DVDs.

George O'Hanlon starred in many of these shorts (if not all of this series), and here he's joined by Joyce Coates. "So You Want to Wear the Pants" is about a feuding couple who go to see a head shrink. He does a little hypnotic exchange of persons in bodies so they can see one another through the other's eyes. The result is very funny, mostly because Joe has Allice's voice and manners in his male body, and Alice has Joe's male voice and husky manners in her body. Each finds out some of what they consider shenanigans on the part of the other.

This 10-minute comedy has some good laughs. The funniest parts are Alice moving and acting like a man with a deep male voice in her body.