Lonely Wives (1931)
A respectable attorney with a wandering eye hires a vaudeville impersonator who is his exact double to stand in for him at home one evening while his wife is away. The wife returns early, a mother-in-law and assorted romantic partners turn up, and neither man can keep straight who is meant to be whom.
Adapted from a much-filmed stage farce, Lonely Wives hands Edward Everett Horton a dual role and lets him play both halves of the mix-up, a rare leading turn for a performer usually cast in support. The independent production’s copyright was not renewed, and it has been in the public domain since 1959.
Background
Lonely Wives was directed by Russell Mack and produced by E.B. Derr for Pathé Exchange, released February 22, 1931, shortly before Pathé’s production arm merged into RKO, which ended up distributing the finished picture. Walter DeLeon’s screenplay adapted a German vaudeville farce called Tanzanwalt, written by Pordes Milo, Walter Schütt, and Dr. Eric Urban, which had already been filmed and staged elsewhere. Edward Everett Horton, usually cast in supporting roles, got a rare lead playing both halves of the plot’s double act: a respectable attorney and the vaudeville impersonator hired to double for him at home.
What to watch for
Horton plays Richard “Dickie” Smith, a lawyer who turns into a philandering Don Juan after hours, and the lookalike performer he hires to stand in at home while he carries on elsewhere; watch how the film distinguishes the two through posture and voice rather than costume, since Horton has to make both characters readable as separate people within the same scene. Esther Ralston, Laura La Plante, and Patsy Ruth Miller round out a household of wife, mother-in-law, and suitors whose arrivals compound the mix-up. The film’s copyright was never renewed, which is why it survives today in the public domain rather than in studio vaults.
