Did you laugh when the Burt Young character's wife

When I saw it with a full house crowd back in 1974, it seemed like the whole audience laughed...and then rather stopped suddenly and choked on their laughter, like "we really shouldn't be laughing at this."

But hey, it WAS funny.

And those photos WERE enraging to a husband.

Are we to believe that this wouldn't be the outcome?

Perhaps the one surprise of the whole scene is how the woman has obviously elected to STAY with the husband who hit her, and how he has decided that she CAN stay. This is called "real life" and isn't taken up too much in movies today. (One would hope, particularly with the kids around, that the black eye will be a one-time occurrence.)

If I sound "in favor" of this scene, I'm not -- but it DID get a laugh and it IS complex(she stays; he keeps her.) And it is real life, for some.