When a couple (John Hubbard and Carole Landis) find themselves swapping bodies, they see it as a chance to experience how the other half lives.
One of the earliest body swap comedies, Turnabout is also a key text in showing the shift away from screwball comedies to more slapstick, broader comedic forms of the war years.
Since it is basically the original version of this premise, the film takes its time to set it out.
The first half of the movie lays out the world of the central couple, essentially providing an extended set up for the central joke.
Their characters are broad and designed to fit stereotypes of traditional gender roles: Tim goes to work; he is dynamic and athletic; Sally is pampered and stationary (she is introduced trying to sleep in).
The film was something of a culture shock. My knowledge of comedy from this era is most through screwball comedies, where the active role is generally taken by a woman who upends the man’s conventional life.
Landis and Hubbard seem to be having a great time as their gender-flipped selves. The effect is somewhat muffled by the decision to dub the characters with their original voices.
We get plenty of farcical hijinks as our unhappy couple realise they are not made for each others’ lives.
The movie ends with all restored thanks to the declaration of a baby. This supposed return of the old order is undermined when it is revealed that Tim is the one who is expecting.
Released a year before US had entered World War 2, there is some added irony to Turnabout’s final gag, anticipating the rapid shift in gender roles as the economy shifted to a war footing.
I watched the film by myself online, so I cannot speak to how funny it is with an audience, but it is fascinating as a historical document.
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