Big Funny, Small Funny

By * T.E.K.

If someone is going to put a wet diaper in your hand, pick Sandy Dennis to do it. The girl makes it seem like some sort of unpublicized honor. A delectable scatterbrain, she appears to be permanently stalled somewhere between bed and breakfast. Sandy is one of life's winning losers. Her eyes imply that the tear ducts were installed first, and her voice box quivers with a heart broken in transit. Perhaps she is every father's illusion of a vulnerable daughter. Count her a big funny plus in a small funny British comedy import called How the Other Half Loves.

Ditto: Phil Silvers. If someone is going to do an in-place jog in your living room in a blue sweatsuit, and rig the timer so that he won't collapse in the middling prime of his life, then why not share the pleasure of Phil's strenuously hilarious company? What with his toothy grin and Dennis' prehensile incisors, the pair might be auditioning for a dentists' convention.

The play is about that common sequel to marriage, adultery. To define it further, it is also about that common sequel to adultery--how to keep the spouse from finding out. Silvers is the cuckold. His wife (Bernice Massi) has spent part of the night with a prized employee of his. Among sexual detectives, Silvers rates on a par with Dr. Watson. Only the final curtain brings light to his cloudily creased forehead.

This is not a comedy that will incur the enthusiasm of devotees of Aristophanes, Moliere, or even Neil Simon. To laugh at How the Other Half Loves is a little like making a midnight raid on the refrigerator, half ashamed but sneakingly satisfied.

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