MovieChat Forums > How to Murder Your Wife (1965) Discussion > Times change - Possible spoilers

Times change - Possible spoilers

posted 17 years ago by pmiano100
12 replies | jump to latest

Back in 1965-1966, it was a modest hit. If you tried to make it today, the feminists would burn you at the stake. I admit I liked it when I first saw it, but I was just a teenager then. Now, I realize Stanley did a really lousy thing to his wife, whose name we never even learn. What really puzzled me back then was how he could carry his unconscious wife slung over his shoulder across the room, and every man and woman in the place either ignored it or laughed at it a few seconds before going back to their martinis. Sadly, as I grew older, I saw it happen several times in bars and at parties in the service, in college, and in homes. If I stopped to asked if the girl/woman was okay, I was given a strange look, even if I knew the people. Then I had to do it to a girlfriend (not the woman I married) who'd had too much despite my warnings. It's funny in a movie, embarrassing (at least to me) in real life. Stan had no right to do that to his wife just because he was frustrated. My wife is from Latin America, and we had a period of adjustment too, but it's worked out fine. It wasn't her fault he got bombed at the bachelor party. He should have just sat down with her and talked it out. As I look as it now, slipping her the mickey was just a petty, juvenile way of getting even with her for his own mistake.

[–] TheMasterJ 17 years ago

Uh, perhaps you have missed this, this is a COMEDY (Farce).

Think of how rotten Moe was to Curly, Larry and Shemp. How did he live with himself?

[–] pmiano100 17 years ago

Of course I know it was a comedy, but you can't compare it to the Three Stooges. Physical (comic) abuse between men is a long, time-honored tradition in movie slapstick. Slipping your wife a mickey is not. Besides, Larry, Curly, and Shemp were such morons, they deserved it. I admit HTMYW was funny in 1965, but I still hold that today's feminists would be up in arms over a remake. There are too many true stories about "date-rape drugs". For one thing, no way a jury in 2007 New York would be made-up entirely of 12 middle-aged, upper-class white men. It being a comedy doesn't excuse everything - not today in these PC times.

[–] JoeLoebner 17 years ago

Come to think of it, a remake would be interesting.

[–] pmiano100 17 years ago

It would be difficult, considering the changes today. For one thing, there's no way Stan would get an all-male jury at his trial, especially with so many female prosecutors these days.

[–] Venus-25 16 years ago

Women have been sitting on juries in NY since 1937. How the hell did he get an all-male jury in 1965?

[–] pmiano100 16 years ago

Possible choices:

1. It was very easy for a woman to get off jury duty in 1965. Maybe none wanted to serve. Yeah, I think that's lame too.

2. A clever lawyer. Wait a minute, he had a stupid one. Okay, a stupid prosecutor.

3. You'll notice all the jurors were all older men. Where were the young men, let alone women? Maybe the jury pool was filled with older guys because Stan lived in an area with a heavy population of old men. No, that's lamer than 1.

4. A plot device for a farcical comedy. With women on the jury, he would never have been acquitted and carried off on the juror's shoulders.

Answer: 4. Much as I hate it too, sometimes, "It's a movie," is the only answer.

[–] spookyrat1 11 years ago

"Women have been sitting on juries in NY since 1937. How the hell did he get an all-male jury in 1965?"

I really liked the courtroom scenes. Once again I don't think you were supposed to take any thing in there remotely seriously.

I think the idea was he was being tried by a jury of his peers...all naturally men...who would of course be sympathetic to his situation.

[–] NewtonFigg 10 years ago

In those days, women could volunteer for jury service. They were not called. So the percentage of women in the jury pool was much lower.

[–] pmiano100 17 years ago

You can't hide behind that. It wasn't a true farce and today there's a lot more sensitivity about man-woman relationships. One guy slapping another is no big deal, even today. Drugging a woman is.

[–] Dylzbie 9 years ago

Yes. Not only did he drug his wife with no concern for her safety but sat in amusement with her antics. All for the sake of creating a plot for his comic strip??
He then also drugged Edna.

And yes, I realize it is a movie and a comedy, but like someone said, it wouldn't hold up today and for good reason. We are living in a post Bill Cosby world now my friends.

[–] AliciaHuberman59 17 years ago

I was able to appreciate it, but appreciate even more so the fact that times have changed!

P.S. You're wife's a lucky woman. :)

[–] pmiano100 17 years ago

Thank you. Will you please tell her that? Seriously, I am very lucky too.