Early credit for Charles Vidor, a journeyman helmer with some standout credits (LOVE ME OR LEAVE ME/’55; GILDA/’46) amid much dross. Here working an intriguing family setup that wastes its potential in overloaded characters & situations. (To say nothing of ham-fisted acting.) Two years back, Frank Capra’s superb LADY FOR A DAY bumped elderly character actress May Robson into some ill-suited starring roles; and in this one, they try her out in Marie Dressler territory as a tough, but sentimental mom tragically blind to the faults of her ungrateful brood.* Preston Foster, the one decent child, needs a bailout for his failing haberdashery. Number Two’s coasting thru life, playing the part of a radical, revolutionary rabble-rouser while Number Three’s an effete snob and would-be thespian. There’s a daughter, too, but she ran off from her fiancé only to return home unexpectedly married to some new fellow. The film story is the only known work from (unproduced?) playwright Marie Bercovici, and trying awfully hard to be the sort of proletariat family drama Clifford Odets was just hitting B’way with in his smash play AWAKE AND SING. Alas, this bargain basement version, if not without social interest as a period Depression piece, is, when not crude & cretinous, unintentionally funny.
DOUBLE-BILL: Odets’ AWAKE AND SING was too left-wing radical for Hollywood. They waited, and got a less controversial play from him in GOLDEN BOY/39, for Barbara Stanwyck & William Holden. OR: *As mentioned above, Dressler in EMMA/’32, one of her big, hokey, sentimental hits. (see below)
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