Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch (1934)

The Wiggs family plan to celebrate Thanksgiving in their rundown shack with leftover stew, without Mr. Wiggs who wandered off long ago an has never been heard from. Do-gooder Miss Lucy ... See full summary »

Director:

Norman Taurog

Writers:

William Slavens McNutt (screenplay), Jane Storm (screenplay),

Stars:

Pauline Lord, W.C. Fields, Zasu Pitts

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Pauline Lord	...	Mrs. Wiggs
W.C. Fields	...	Mr. C. Ellsworth Stubbins
Zasu Pitts	...	Miss TabithaHazy
Evelyn Venable	...	Lucy Olcott
Kent Taylor	...	Bob Redding
Charles Middleton	...	Mr. Bagby
Donald Meek	...	Mr. Hiram Wiggs
Jimmy Butler	...	Billy Wiggs
George P. Breakston	...	Jimmy Wiggs (as George Breakston)
Edith Fellows	...	Australia Wiggs
Virginia Weidler	...	Europena Wiggs
Carmencita Johnson	...	Asia Wiggs
George Reed	...	Julius
Mildred Gover	...	Priscilla
Arthur Housman	...	Dick Harris

Storyline

The Wiggs family plan to celebrate Thanksgiving in their rundown shack with leftover stew, without Mr. Wiggs who wandered off long ago an has never been heard from. Do-gooder Miss Lucy brings them a real feast. Her boyfriend Bob arranges to take Wiggs' sick boy to a hospital. Their other boy makes some money peddling kindling and takes the family to a show. Mrs. Wiggs is called to the hopsital just in time to see her boy die. Her neighbor Miss Mazy wants to marry Mr. Stubbins who insists on tasting her cooking. Mrs. Wiggs sneaks her dishes past Stubbins who agrees to marriage. Mr. Wiggs appears suddenly, in tatters, with just the amount of money (twenty dollars) needed to save the family from foreclosure. Miss Lucy and Bob get married.

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Plot Keywords:

wedding | singing | missing husband | death | charity | 

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Genres:

Comedy

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

10 December 1935 (Denmark)

Also Known As:

Lille mor

Filming Locations:

Calabasas, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paramount Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

80 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Noiseless Recording)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Although the onscreen credits list the source of the movie as a play by Anne Crawford Flexner and Alice Hegan Rice, the play was actually written by Flexner from 2 stories, "Mrs. Wiggs" and "Lovey Mary," by Rice. The play opened at the Savoy Theater in New York on 3 September, 1904 and had 150 performances before closing in January 1905. The opening night cast included Thurston Hall as Bob and Helen Lowell as Miss Hazey.

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Connections

Version of Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch (1942)

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Soundtracks

"Sobre las Olas (Over the Waves)"
(1887) (uncredited)
Music by Juventino Rosas
Played during the acrobats' act at the opera house

User Reviews

Pauline Lord might have been the star but Bill Fields steals the show!

Mrs. Wiggs Of The Cabbage Patch was based on a novel, about the exploits of a fatherless family trying to survive, at least through Thanksgiving. Starring Pauline Lord, she plods on with her little brood, looking hopefully to the future. If the story ended with this, then we wouldn't be noting it here.

Paramount had to do something to liven it up, and make it more worthy, so they added a few trump cards, notably W.C. Fields and Zasu Pitts, with a budding romance between the two to make things a bit more interesting. That worked. Pitts is now just a remembered funny name of movies, but we tend to forget that her career was long, fruitful and funny, all of the way into television. Her sense of comic timing was legendary. Bill Fields in his role is somewhat subdued, but as a supporting actor, he dresses up the production greatly. Let's not give anything away here, but this is why I have a copy! Hard to find, (on Goodtimes), and at a budget price, try to find this one.