The huge Jones family, in their second "official" movie (and third in the series), take to the road to avoid the kids having to spend the summer on an aunt's dull farm, renting a trailer to travel a long way where pop Jed Prouty is going to get an award for his successful pharmacy. They stopped in a variety of places, get involved in some sticky situations and one of the daughters (Dixie Dunbar) finds romance with handsome Tony Martin at the beginning of his film career.
Once again, Prouty excels that's playing the pompous, overly proud patriarch who makes a ton of small booboo's and tries to hide them in his attempts to guide the family to get to their destination safely. Dunbar first encounters Martin while trying to escape from a baby bear (absolutely harmless!), and pop nearly drops the youngest child off the side of a cliff. Another adventure on a lake with Prouty going through all sorts of acrobatic stunts on a motor boat (with gorgeous snowy mountains in the background) is a highlight.
This is actually a variation of an earlier Fox Will Rogers film, "Mister Skitch", cut down as a B-movie to just an hour and a lot more entertaining than the first entry. There is actually a plot here, and everybody in the Ensemble get something good to do. Once again, Spring Byington doesn't really do anything more than worry about her family and try to keep her husband out of trouble, but Florence Roberts again gets the best lines as Granny Jones. A good backlight set makes this feel less claustrophobic then the first which was mainly set in the house, and there are plenty of interesting characters that pop in and out to show America at its folksy best.
Once again, Prouty excels that's playing the pompous, overly proud patriarch who makes a ton of small booboo's and tries to hide them in his attempts to guide the family to get to their destination safely. Dunbar first encounters Martin while trying to escape from a baby bear (absolutely harmless!), and pop nearly drops the youngest child off the side of a cliff. Another adventure on a lake with Prouty going through all sorts of acrobatic stunts on a motor boat (with gorgeous snowy mountains in the background) is a highlight.
This is actually a variation of an earlier Fox Will Rogers film, "Mister Skitch", cut down as a B-movie to just an hour and a lot more entertaining than the first entry. There is actually a plot here, and everybody in the Ensemble get something good to do. Once again, Spring Byington doesn't really do anything more than worry about her family and try to keep her husband out of trouble, but Florence Roberts again gets the best lines as Granny Jones. A good backlight set makes this feel less claustrophobic then the first which was mainly set in the house, and there are plenty of interesting characters that pop in and out to show America at its folksy best.
