"Should Husbands Be Watched?"

"The Young Wife--She got married for a lark--It turned out to be a buzzard--" This opening intertitle introduced Charley's sixth release for 1925. One of his last one-reelers, this little gem is a perfect example of Chase and McCarey's art maturing to the point where they simply had to graduate to the two-reel form. As always, at least as much humor is derived from the playing of the scenes as from the plotting. Chase and company were becoming master farceurs.

Chase again essays the role of Jimmy Jump, only here called Jamison due to an unexpected change in fortune. We first see Jimmy jauntily striding down the street. He flips a young boy a coin as if he were J.P. Morgan incarnate. Arriving home he spies wife Katherine Grant scrubbing the floor. Disdainfully kicking the bucket away, he announces, "You'll never have to work again as long as you live!-- I jus' gotta raise in my salary!" The next card sets up the comedy for the rest of the reel: Scared stiff -- They never had a maid before. Not sure what to do--or when to do it.

Fetching Olive Borden is the maid, and her presence makes normal life impossible for the Jumps. The dinner scene is a perfect comic sketch of a nouveau riche couple. The Jumps are first seen peeking around the corner at Olive, anxiously awaiting the sound of the dinner bell, which rings so precisely that Jimmy can set his watch by it. The maid helpfully brings Jimmy his dinner jacket but Katherine feels so underdressed that she too puts on her jacket. The discovery that there is no salt at the table creates a minor crisis as flustered Jimmy stammers out "S-s-s-sugar..." and Olive heaps generous helpings onto his meat.

After dinner a title informs us that the couple "...couldn't be happier if they were quarantined--" The maid's departure brings only momentary relief to the Jumps. Terrified, Olive races back into the house into Jimmy's arms having witnessed a hold-up on the street outside. In a gag that perfectly melds character and comedy, Katherine discovers the two in an embrace. Instead of reacting in the expected manner, she testily points to her watch to remind Olive that it is past quitting time. One wonders what "service" she thought the maid was about to perform.

Jimmy reluctantly puts an end to the burglary by shooting the victim's hat off. This is where the man's wallet was hidden, so the gunman gets his loot and dashes into the Jump household. He thanks Jimmy for the help and offers to split the take. Jimmy refuses, preferring to impress the women with his prowess as protector-of-the-house. He quickly dispatches the crook, then basks in the loving admiration of wife and maid. Olive asks Jimmy to drive her home: "Please drive me home, Big Man-I'm afraid to go alone--"

Jimmy drives the now flirtatious maid home, rebuffing all her advances. Leaving her at her door with a chaste handshake, Jimmy returns to his car only to find his wife tumbling out of the back seat. "I'm so sorry, Jamison. I'll never be suspicious of you again-Never!" and she walks home, weeping. It's Jimmy's moment of truth: should he go after his wife or go into Olive's house? The fickle maid resolves Jimmy's dilemma by offering a curt rebuff. Jimmy then drives alongside Katherine beseeching her to climb into his car. A suspicious cop surveys the scene and asks Katherine if this nut is bothering her. Jimmy responds "You're cuckoo! A man doesn't flirt with his own wife--It spoils 'em!" The cop: "Don't kid me--Can you prove that he's your husband?" Katherine responds with a haymaker to Jimmy's jaw. The cop smiles and nods, satisfied that the happy couple are lawfully married.

One casting mystery: William Frawley has traditionally been identified as the actor who plays the cop at the end of the film. If this is indeed the then 37-year-old Frawley, one can only surmise that the man was born old. He looks exactly as he does in his role as I Love Lucy's Fred Mertz some thirty years later! Could this be William Frawley, Sr.?

One reel, four scenes, ten minutes. Charley and creative partner Leo McCarey were to mine the comic possibilities of middle class mores and marital infidelity again and again throughout the next few years. In the course of one year their comedy had evolved from a single reel chock full of brilliantly conceived and executed gags (Young Oldfield, Big Red Ridinghood) to the far more refined comedy of character. They were like painters who specialized in miniatures, but having gone as far as they could, needed a bigger canvas. The curtain was just about to rise on their greatest period of creativity.

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