I haven’t seen Love, Honor and Obey (1938), although like many of you I have seen the posters and stills that occasionally circulate with the featured spanking. Apparently this movie has not been released for DVD nor is it available on TCM. The reason I suspect is the fisticuffs between the husband and wife at the end of the film.
The said scene is played for laughs and she gives as good as she gets before he settles things with a sound spanking.
Leaving aside the black eyes the scene is a strong domestic depiction of LDD, rare for a movie of any time and when the woman’s mother and father try to intervene mid spanking, and the Pricilla Lane (the wife) makes a good show of taking it for real, she breaks off from yelling and crying to say “can’t a guy get any privacy.”
The movie ends with the spanking still in progress.
The final scene can be seen here.
I cast around for any other examples of domestic rows that ended in a spanking and although there are many I thought this one from a Boston newspaper in 1937 (two years before the movie) was most apropos.
Police called to a house in Stanton Street Wednesday last found a man spanking his wife “with some vigor.” Both parties were sporting various minor injuries, including a black eye and the woman was is some distress at her rough treatment.
When officers tried to intervene the wife berated them and declined all offers of help. She is reported to have said, “Can’t a man spank his wife when she needs it?”
No arrests were made.
Maybe the LHO scriptwriter read this report.
