''Should Sailors Marry?'' is a 1925 American
silent comedy film
A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...
featuring
Clyde cook and
Oliver Hardy.
Plot
A wife waits for her brawling sailor ex-husband (
Noah Young
Noah Young, Jr. (February 2, 1887 – April 18, 1958) was a champion weightlifter and actor.
Biography
Young was born in Cañon City, Colorado. His father, Noah Young, was a foreman of the Glenrock coal mine who later became a coal mine i ...
). His friends sneer at him for ever being married. She has come to get back alimony.
Cyril (
Clyde Cook) is returning home after 4 years on a
submarine. He is on a train going to visit Verbena Singlefoot, a sturdy widow with whom he has been corresponding. She owns her building a takes in boarders. She won a beauty prize in the
Chicago World Fair of 1893 (22 years previously).
He puts on his overcoat to get off the train but two men are trying to put on the same coat. He opens the carriage window and sees Verbena outside, he leans out to hug her then passes his bags out of the window and exits there instead of the door. They marry and head home. The ex-husband loiters at the entrance.
He is introduced to her son - a bratty young teenager dressed as a cowboy - who demands that Cyril dances the "bagpipe" (meaning
hornpipe
The hornpipe is any of several dance forms played and danced in Britain and Ireland and elsewhere from the 16th century until the present day. The earliest references to hornpipes are from England with Hugh Aston's Hornepype of 1522 and others ...
). He fires his guns at Cyril's feet to make him dance. When the boy seems to lose interest and wanders off he goes to check and gets his cap shot off.
He is then introduced to his new daughter, Smyrna, a precocious girl of around 16. Smyrna gives him a sexy wink. Sitting on hot curling tongs sets Cyril into another hornpipe. The ex-husband appears and gets kicked on the chin in Cyril's enthusiastic dance. Smyrna asks "did he hurt you Daddy?" and Cyril asks Verbena for an explanation.
On their wedding night he puts on his nightgown and nightcap. He hides in the bed and does not realise that it is the ex-husband getting in, not Verbena. They fight over the covers before Cyril spots his mistake. Verbena comes in and checks his pockets for money. She cries when he says he has none. The ex-husband tells him he will have to work to pay him his alimony. He dreams of wrestling him then they actually wrestle.. The ex his twice his size but he nimbly escapes his grabs and blows.
The doctor (
Oliver Hardy) arrives with an assistant to check him for life insurance, interrupting his first day's work: sharpening tools. They check his heart and blood pressure. The doctor does not pay attention and over-inflates the blood pressure band, bursting it. He is pronounced "perfect" but the doctor wants to operate "just for the experience". They try to strip him and he resists. The doctor agrees a $25000 policy payable to Verbena. Calamities instantly begin on a steel construction of a skyscraper many floors up. He escapes into a passing hot air balloon advertising Reno Soap. He cuts the tether to escape. He throws out a sand bag and hits the ex, dropping him off the steelwork.
Cyril indicates he is going to
Reno
Reno ( ) is a city in the northwest section of the U.S. state of Nevada, along the Nevada-California border, about north from Lake Tahoe, known as "The Biggest Little City in the World". Known for its casino and tourism industry, Reno is the ...
.
Cast
*
Clyde Cook as Cyril D'Armond
*
Noah Young
Noah Young, Jr. (February 2, 1887 – April 18, 1958) was a champion weightlifter and actor.
Biography
Young was born in Cañon City, Colorado. His father, Noah Young, was a foreman of the Glenrock coal mine who later became a coal mine i ...
as The ex-husband
*
Fay Holderness
Fay Holderness (née MacMurray; April 16, 1881 – May 13, 1963) was an American vaudeville performer and film actress.
Family
Fay Holderness was born Fay MacMurray in Oconto, Wisconsin, the daughter of Thomas James MacMurray and Mary E. Mac ...
as Verbena Singlefoot (the new wife)
*
Martha Sleeper
Martha Sleeper (June 24, 1910 – March 25, 1983) was a film actress of the 1920s–1930s and, later, a Broadway stage actress. She studied dancing for five years with Russian ballet master, Louis H. Chalif, at his New York dancing studio. ...
as Smyrna
*
Oliver Hardy as Doctor
*
Sammy Brooks
Sammy Brooks (July 10, 1891 – May 16, 1951) was an American film actor. He appeared in 218 films between 1916 and 1938. He was born in New York City and died in Los Angeles, California.
Selected filmography
* Luke, the Candy Cut-Up (19 ...
as Doctor's short assistant
* William Gillespie as Train passenger
*
Helen Gilmore
Helen Gilmore (born Antoinette A. Field, c. 1872 – April 1936) was an American actress of the stage and silent motion pictures from Louisville, Kentucky. She appeared in well over 100 films between 1913 and 1932.
Early life and career
In a ...
as Train passenger
See also
*
List of American films of 1925
A List of American films of 1925 is a compilation of American films that were released in the year 1925. All films on this list are in the Public Domain since 2021.
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
...
References
External links
*
{{Oliver Hardy filmography
1925 films
American silent short films
American black-and-white films
1925 comedy films
1925 short films
Films directed by Jess Robbins
Silent American comedy films
Films with screenplays by H. M. Walker
American comedy short films
1920s American films