Their First Mistake (1932)
Surprisingly risqué subject matter for a comedy,Mrs. Hardy (Mae Busch) is jealous because Olly spends more time with Stan than he does with her.In fact she divorces Olly and Stan is being sued for the alienation of Hardy's affection?? And before this even happens Stan suggests that Olly adopts a baby.
Stan: "I'm not as dumb as you look"
Ollie: "You bet your life you're not"
Today this would be a social services nightmare, two men adopting a baby, a wife jealous of another man,this surely has the makings of an episode of Jeremy Kyle Show.Of course our two would be daddies now have to look after the baby,cue lots of mishaps with baby bottles and Stan taking the odd swig when he thinks Olly isn't looking. It never seems odd that Stan and Olly share a bed allot,it just cements there friendship even more,although it does get a bit weird when Olly is feeding Stan the babies bottle while both are still half a sleep.Stan usually has the more submissive role but in a great bit of gender reversal Oliver takes the role of an almost a single mother when Stan decides he doesn't want anything to do with bring up the baby and has his career and future to think of. You could really give yourself a headache with the plot of this one,Stan and Olly taking on the role of parents (well before Sir Elton John and his partner David Furnish did the same ). Most of the humour comes from baby sitting and the boys approach to father hood,although with Stan hogging the milk its hardly surprising the baby never stops crying, social services would of been in there like a shot.My only real criticism is that there's no resolution to the story which is a pity as I read there was an alternative ending where Mrs. Hardy (Mae Busch) had the same idea and comes home with twins.POM POM.
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