Don't underestimate this spunky old last (Fay Bainter) when it comes to fighting crime. Disgusted by a quarter protection fee added to her laundry Bill, granny gets her gun. The rich eccentric hires former New York backwaters to take on the ones in her city, and before long, she's got the criminals shaking in their boots as she threatens to take on city hall. She pulls a gun on them, threatens to the expose the corrupt mayor, kidnaps one of the top criminals and dares to escape from the local jail. This feisty granny without the tweety bird is as brave as Jimmy Stewart was as the junior senator framed in "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington", released the same year. In fact, this is so clues to the types of films that Columbia studios had been putting out ever since Mr. Deeds had gone to town that this could definitely be called Capra- corn with a feminine twist.
Just coming off her Oscar winning performance in "Jezebel", Bainter is a delight, funny and feisty and seemingly without fear. She gets a moving monologue that with what was going on over in Europe was certainly timely. Rackateer bullies are as dangerous as Hitler, Mussolini and other dictators, she insinuates without mentioning any names, and it us better to die fighting for your liberty than be living in fear under the thumb of brutality.
Not quite a major star yet, Ida Lupino is featured as Bainter's future daughter in law. Lee Bowman is barely adequate as her son, but Warren Hymer adds laughs as the chauffeur with a criminal past whose chums are a cross between Curly from the Three Stooges and various classic cartoon characters. It is obvious how this will pan out, but it is fun getting there.
Just coming off her Oscar winning performance in "Jezebel", Bainter is a delight, funny and feisty and seemingly without fear. She gets a moving monologue that with what was going on over in Europe was certainly timely. Rackateer bullies are as dangerous as Hitler, Mussolini and other dictators, she insinuates without mentioning any names, and it us better to die fighting for your liberty than be living in fear under the thumb of brutality.
Not quite a major star yet, Ida Lupino is featured as Bainter's future daughter in law. Lee Bowman is barely adequate as her son, but Warren Hymer adds laughs as the chauffeur with a criminal past whose chums are a cross between Curly from the Three Stooges and various classic cartoon characters. It is obvious how this will pan out, but it is fun getting there.