Tish (1942)

Letitia "Tish" Carberry, an eccentric New England spinster, lives with her nephew, Charlie Sands, and her two cronies, Aggie Pilkington and Lizzie Wilkins, live in a near-by boarding house.... See full summary »

Director:

S. Sylvan Simon

Writers:

Mary Roberts Rinehart (stories), Annalee Whitmore (adaptation),

Stars:

Marjorie Main, Zasu Pitts, Aline MacMahon

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Marjorie Main	...	Miss Letitia 'Tish' Carberry
Zasu Pitts	...	Aggie Pilkington (as ZaSu Pitts)
Aline MacMahon	...	Lizzie Wilkins
Susan Peters	...	Cora Edwards Bowzer
Lee Bowman	...	Charles 'Charlie' Sands, Tish's Nephew
Guy Kibbee	...	Judge Horace Bowser
Virginia Grey	...	Katherine 'Kit' Bowser Sands
Richard Quine	...	Theodore 'Ted' Bowser

Storyline

Letitia "Tish" Carberry, an eccentric New England spinster, lives with her nephew, Charlie Sands, and her two cronies, Aggie Pilkington and Lizzie Wilkins, live in a near-by boarding house. Cora Edwards also lives at the boarding house and is in love with Charlie, who, however, loves Katherine "Kit" Bowser, the daughter of Judge Horace Bowser. Tish and her cronies promote a romance between Cora and Charlie, but Cora decides it is Theodore "Ted" Bowser she loves and they are secretly married before Ted leaves for a training school in Toronto, learning to ferry planes to England. Charlie and Katherine also elope secretly. Cora, anxious to join Ted, borrows money from the church organ fund and leaves, telling no one where she is going. Tish takes the blame for the shortage. Cora raises the money to repay Tish and goes to the post office, while Ted is on a flight. Before she mails it, she opens a letter she received from the Canadian government announcing Ted's loss at sea. She faints, is...

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Plot Keywords:

baby | nephew | judge | spinster | sanitarium | 

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Taglines:

Mary Roberts Rinehart's Character! Comedy Surprise Hit Of The Year!

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

17 September 1942 (USA)

Filming Locations:

Big Bear Lake, Big Bear Valley, San Bernardino National Forest, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

84 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Two performers in studio records and casting call lists were not seen in the movie. These were Margaret Bert (Mrs. Phelps) and Rudy Wissler (Newsboy). Jesse Arnold (Woman in Street) is listed in a modern source, but she was not seen in the film.

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Quotes

Aggie Pilkington: That butler...
Lizzie Wilkins: Some people you have to know well to dislike. Others you can hate on very short acquaintance.

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Soundtracks

"Till We Meet Again"
(1918) (uncredited)
Music by Richard A. Whiting
Lyrics by Ray Egan
Played on an accordion by George Humbert
Reprised on harmonica by Lee Bowman

User Reviews

This comedy is a tragedy

It's nice to see the three great characters actresses, but they are given very little to work with. Marjorie Main's is the only developed character, and she seems miscast in it. Fine production values, to be sure, but this film is a mess from beginning to end. The script desperately needed many more re-writes, as you can't tell who's supposed to be in love with whom. People that you think are supposed to be good do cruel things, and then you're supposed to turn around and find them good again. Terribly tragic events are used as contrived plot devices, and passed over by the characters with little more than an "oh, too bad" by the characters. Then to compound the tragedy of this comedy is the back story: Susan Peters, so young and beautiful in this film married Richard Quine who played her love interest. She was paralyzed in a gun accident a few years later, and after trying to recover her career by working in a wheelchair, she fell into depression and decline and died. She had divorced Quine. He had a successful but largely forgotten career as a director, until he also fell into depression and committed suicide.