The Van Dyke family is as crazy and ookie as the Addams family, driving its patriarch (Walter Connelly) to voluntarily confess to corporate crimes just to get away from them. Matriarch Billie Burke couldn't save a penny to put sequins back on the designer dresses she can no longer afford, while selfish daughter Joan Bennett becomes engaged to the pompous Alan Mowbray just to maintain her own purse strings. Neer do well son James Blakeley takes over the office and do ends more time playing Frisbee with Hus hat, disturbing Franklin Pangborn with the perfect toss much to his annoyance. In prison, Connelly ends up as cell-mate with bootlegger George Rafy and makes arrangements so Raft will end up in charge of the wastrel family when he gets out of prison.
This screwball comedy, made before "My Man Godfrey" is funny yet predictable, giving Raft and Bennett juicy roles in the leads and Connelly a nice cameo. Such antics as Raft exposing Bennett who is trying to hide her identity and later arranging for a phony kidnapping so he can fleece Mowbray with Bennett's help. The shot of Bennett watching her kidnappers play tidily winks while guarding her is a hoot. Of course, the kidnapping becomes real thanks to another criminal played by Lloyd Nolan. It's moderately amusing, if no classic, and it is obvious that Raft will teach the Van Dykes about self-reliance while Bennett teaches him respectability.
This screwball comedy, made before "My Man Godfrey" is funny yet predictable, giving Raft and Bennett juicy roles in the leads and Connelly a nice cameo. Such antics as Raft exposing Bennett who is trying to hide her identity and later arranging for a phony kidnapping so he can fleece Mowbray with Bennett's help. The shot of Bennett watching her kidnappers play tidily winks while guarding her is a hoot. Of course, the kidnapping becomes real thanks to another criminal played by Lloyd Nolan. It's moderately amusing, if no classic, and it is obvious that Raft will teach the Van Dykes about self-reliance while Bennett teaches him respectability.