Marjorie Main gives a truly wonderful performance as a feisty church lady who is constantly filling her swear box with change by using malapropisms to cover the swear words she is thinking inside. She has set out to pair her beloved nephew whom she raised with the daughter of a deceased friend. But when plans start to fail, he ends up with the rather uppity daughter of her nemesis Guy Kibbee, and she finds herself in a predicament when she discovers that the young girl has left town and died after giving birth to a baby she assumes is illegitimate. She takes in the child whom she claims she has adopted but this leads to her being committed to an institution while the nephew and his wife take in the child.
This is a rather convoluted plot line, especially for what is essentially a comedy, but it works mainly because of the chemistry between Main and her two "Steel Magnolia" like pals Aline MacMahon and Zasu Pitts. Even her supposed rival Kibbee has an unexpressed admiration for Main, which she feels for him as well but is too set in her ways to admit it. There is a very funny opening sequence where Main attempts rollerskating on her way to church but ends up on her derrière, as well as a lengthy scene on a camping trip with her nephew, the young girl she wants him with, and her two pals. Susan Peters is the young Innocent girl, while Lee Bowman and Virginia Grey are the couple who end up together. The real highlight of this film is not the young couple, but Main (in a role patterned after many Marie Dressler parts), Pitts and MacMahon.
This is a rather convoluted plot line, especially for what is essentially a comedy, but it works mainly because of the chemistry between Main and her two "Steel Magnolia" like pals Aline MacMahon and Zasu Pitts. Even her supposed rival Kibbee has an unexpressed admiration for Main, which she feels for him as well but is too set in her ways to admit it. There is a very funny opening sequence where Main attempts rollerskating on her way to church but ends up on her derrière, as well as a lengthy scene on a camping trip with her nephew, the young girl she wants him with, and her two pals. Susan Peters is the young Innocent girl, while Lee Bowman and Virginia Grey are the couple who end up together. The real highlight of this film is not the young couple, but Main (in a role patterned after many Marie Dressler parts), Pitts and MacMahon.