I caught this movie on Turner Classic Movies, not expecting much, but was surprised to find one of those classic daffy family comedies of the 30's, where a bunch of disparate people come together in a household and play out their lives amid what seems like chaos. Think of HOLIDAY. Guy Kibbee and Alice Brady provide the broken eggs to bind everything together.
Betty Furness, well before her Westinghouse commercial days and NBC Today duties, provides the ingénue role opposite a very young Dennis Morgan who would exercise his vocal chords in MGM productions.There's a Russian character around who makes you think of Micha Auer in MY MAN GODFREY and some characters who are reminiscent of those in the much later YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU. A well timed servants strike helps to bring matters to a close. So, a revolution helps? Well, that's all a subtext.
Those of you familiar with Kibbee's screen appearances with Aline MacMahon might be delighted at seeing how he plays against a ditz (Alice Brady) instead of a capable woman (Aline). Kibbee blusters well, as we know he can, but here he has to become a virtual drunkard to match up with an actress whose dithering and screen stupidity make Marion Lorne look like a TV parody. (Aline, by the way, for those not all that familiar with her can be seen in many a Kibbee film. Her consummate role, repeated many times, was that of the rock bottomed "mater" of the family who provided the ballast while Dear Old Dad, sailed about).
The movie's enjoyable, but catch it during a time when you need a brief and pleasant diversion from bombs bursting in air and the blood and gore films, and are not expecting an AA award nominee.
Betty Furness, well before her Westinghouse commercial days and NBC Today duties, provides the ingénue role opposite a very young Dennis Morgan who would exercise his vocal chords in MGM productions.There's a Russian character around who makes you think of Micha Auer in MY MAN GODFREY and some characters who are reminiscent of those in the much later YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU. A well timed servants strike helps to bring matters to a close. So, a revolution helps? Well, that's all a subtext.
Those of you familiar with Kibbee's screen appearances with Aline MacMahon might be delighted at seeing how he plays against a ditz (Alice Brady) instead of a capable woman (Aline). Kibbee blusters well, as we know he can, but here he has to become a virtual drunkard to match up with an actress whose dithering and screen stupidity make Marion Lorne look like a TV parody. (Aline, by the way, for those not all that familiar with her can be seen in many a Kibbee film. Her consummate role, repeated many times, was that of the rock bottomed "mater" of the family who provided the ballast while Dear Old Dad, sailed about).
The movie's enjoyable, but catch it during a time when you need a brief and pleasant diversion from bombs bursting in air and the blood and gore films, and are not expecting an AA award nominee.