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Dear Wife is played largely on the comic level of such crude gags as the eye that blackens right after the punch. One bright spot: Radio Announcer Harry von Zell trying desperately to get a cheery broadcast out of a family breakfast table where no one is speaking. Holden and Joan Caulfield are likable enough, and Mona is all too convincingly irritating. Comedian Billy De Wolfe deserves to work on television, where he could be turned off at will.
* An ancient, almost universal legend, the tale pops up in 16th Century German literature, was popularized by Charles Perrault's 17th Century French version, which Disney credits as the movie's source.