Sauce for the Gander (1940) User Reviews (2)

Despite what the summary says, this film is certainly NOT lost!

[planktonrules · 4/10 · 28 November 2020]

In 1940, Alan Ladd was an unknown actor who had only bit parts in films. Two of his projects that year had a common thread...these B-movies ("Blame It on Love" and "Sauce for the Gander") were actually ads for Hotpoint appliances. But instead of everything being about Hotpoint, the films are stories about young couples....and Hotpoint makes their lives better.

When the story begins, a 'man on the street' reporter (Ladd) is interviewing folks. One of them, Mr. Tupper, makes an idiot out of himself by essentially saying that housework was easy and men could easily do it themselves. The man is an instant pariah....and folks all over town hate him and reporters flock around him. As for Mrs. Tupper, she isn't overtly angry but instead suggests that if her job as a housewife is so easy, he should try it and she should go work in his office.

This plot, if you've seen any television from the 1950s-70s, is one of the more familiar ones....and tons of TV couples used this plot. And, like all these shows, the movie greatly exaggerates the work of housewives and husbands in order to make a comedic point...as well as to sell appliances in the case of this film!

So is it any good? Well, it is mildly amusing and enjoyable but some of the humor (particularly when the wife is driving a tractor) is very broad and low-brow. Of course, the same can be said for this plot in the sit-coms! But what cannot be said of the television plots is that they'd have a commercial not so subtly placed within the program...which you get in this film as the housewives show off their wonderful kitchens and go on and on about Hotpoint appliances! It makes for a very weird viewing experience!

By the way, as the summary mentions, IMDB is incorrect....this film is not lost and is available on YouTube.

They did a better job switching roles on a half hour episode of "I Love Lucy".

[mark.waltz · 3/10 · 24 July 2019]

This play about the war between the sexes is a combination of misandry and massage and he that does not either gender any favor. The husband (Damian O'Flynn) is stereotypically chauvenistic, sticking his foot in it when about gender relations in regards to men and women switching livelihoods. Is virtually attacked by every woman on the street as he goes about his business, and his arrogant wife (Joan Woodbury) is smugly waiting for him when he arrives home, giving him the opportunity to take over the household and take over his job. Of course, he makes a mess at home, and she is a success in a business that realistically she was know nothing about, but her smugness seems to increase, making her increasingly unlikable and him irrevocably stupid.

This comedy never had a physical theatrical release, most likely released for showings at women's group meetings, and rushed out for showing as men O'Flynn's age were going off to fight World War II and as women went to work in defense plants. At least on "I Love Lucy", when the situation was dramatized, it presented a fair view of how neither sex could automatically jump into what the other gender was doing. the only memorable thing about this is the unbilled appearance by Alan Ladd at the very beginning as the reporter who interviews O'Flynn and get him into all this trouble. The ending tried to make things right with a sudden switch in their situations (benefiting O'Flynn more than Woodbury), but the damage has already been done.