And it turns out to be one of the longest running, too! I've seen movies, plays, TV specials and series based on the "Peanuts" characters, Blondie and Dagwood, Lil' Orphan Annie, Lil' Abner and several others. I wasn't sure I'd get into this based on the complexity of the history, but thankfully, the screenwriter makes it clear who everybody is, how everything falls together and even the minor characters who made recurring appearances as if part of a continuing soap opera scenario. Pop Don Briscoe was the town bachelor as intruduced in the prologue, but soon, he's a reluctant adoptive father, a new husband and then father of two of his own children. Love for family is love, natural children or not, and brothers Jimmy Lyndon (adopted son, left on doorstep) and Scotty Beckett (natural son) are quite close.
Youngest sister Patty Brady is the typical lovable brat, yet the voice of what everybody is thinking. When Beckett returns home from college with new wife Susan Morrow, the house becomes very crowded, and Beckett quickly rises up the ranks from restaurant dishwasher to chef in training to owner of his own restaurant, co-signed by Lyndon. He becomes the intended victim of businessmen desperate to buy the property, but friends and family scheme to aide Beckett into beating these con-artists at their own game.
A very intelligent screenplay aides the film from becoming just another standard family comedy. Supporting characters played by Gus Schilling, Dick Wessel and Charles Halton add to the amusement with Virginia Toland memorable as a femme fatale after Beckett, not knowing that he's married. She gets a truly hysterical exit line. Like most Columbia comedies of the time, this culminates with a sensational speeding car sequence. Too bad this only had just one sequel!
Youngest sister Patty Brady is the typical lovable brat, yet the voice of what everybody is thinking. When Beckett returns home from college with new wife Susan Morrow, the house becomes very crowded, and Beckett quickly rises up the ranks from restaurant dishwasher to chef in training to owner of his own restaurant, co-signed by Lyndon. He becomes the intended victim of businessmen desperate to buy the property, but friends and family scheme to aide Beckett into beating these con-artists at their own game.
A very intelligent screenplay aides the film from becoming just another standard family comedy. Supporting characters played by Gus Schilling, Dick Wessel and Charles Halton add to the amusement with Virginia Toland memorable as a femme fatale after Beckett, not knowing that he's married. She gets a truly hysterical exit line. Like most Columbia comedies of the time, this culminates with a sensational speeding car sequence. Too bad this only had just one sequel!