Alice wants a job outside the home. So Joe connives with his boss to hire Alice for their office and make her work so hard that she'll realize...wait for it...a woman's place is in the home. (Don't blame me -- that exact phrase is used several times within this short.) But Alice ends up doing such beneficial work for the boss that she gets promoted over her husband.
Nothing dates 1950's comedy quite like the old "keep the woman in her place" routine. (This short even makes a reference to keeping Alice barefoot and pregnant; though the movie doesn't go so far as to use the P-word, the short's final gag is implication enough.) The only saving grace to this routine is watching Alice getting excited about actually using her brain at a job -- a subtext that the chauvinistic filmmakers couldn't quite keep hidden away. Little did they know what kind of changes the next decade would bring.
It's definitely a pity that the Joe McDoakes series couldn't have ended on more of a high note.
Our rating: (C) 2012, Steve Bailey.
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