Why Leave Home? (1929) Reviews

Dixie Lee, best known to latter-day viewers as the first wife of Bing Crosby, essayed a leading role in the early Fox talkie Why Leave Home?. Things get under way when suburban matrons Ethel (Ilka Chase), Susan (Dot Farley) and Maude (Laura Hamilton) discover that their husbands George (Jed Prouty), Elmer (Walter Catlett) and Roy (Gordon DeMain) have been "stepping out" with some chorus girls. To get even, the ladies hire college boys Jose (Richard Keene), Oscar (David Rollins) and Dick (Nick Stuart) as their "gigolos." Caught in the middle are the collegiates' showgirl sweethearts Billie (Dixie Lee), Jackie (Jean Barry) and Mary (Sue Carol). Inevitably, all fifteen protagonists meet at a nightclub, leading to a cascade of slapstick complications. A remake of 1928's The Cradle Snatchers, Why Leave Home? was itself remade as Let's Face It in 1943. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi