This noisy family comedy makes me long for the squeaky cleanliness and moderate calm of MGM's Andy Hardy series. From the housekeeper and cook to mom and dad and the three obnoxious offspring, even to the family pet, nobody ever shuts up, and everything out of their mouth seems to be a claim if how important their problems are or begging for acknowledgment. In short, this is a family in its entirety which needs either therapy or a major time out.
While a plot description sets this up as a comedy surrounding the problems of the first day of spring, there's nothing amusing inside any of these characters, and that includes the people they are involved with outside of the family. Olivia De Havilland, in one of her first solo starring vehicles, plays a character throwing herself unashamedly at a married man, while mom and pop Freida Inescort and in Hunter deal with the gossipy or harsh financial situations in her club and his office. I can't see this being like this on stage, but I could very much be wrong considering that it has never been revived.
At least Bonita Granville has the excuse of being a teenaged girl for being so badly behaved. Peter Willes seems justified in his frustration as the middle child, dealing with two rather annoying sisters. Una O'Connor and Beryl Mercer manage to get a few laughs as the servants. Roland Young, Alice Brady, Peggy Wood, Anita Louise and Walter Woolf King are lost among the outsiders, indicating that this has far too many characters. Unlike other successful stage plays successfully made into movies that featured an extensive cast ("Stage Door", "The Women", "The Doughgirls"), this just flies all over the place. It made me find myself disliking it more and more as it went on...and on...and on.
While a plot description sets this up as a comedy surrounding the problems of the first day of spring, there's nothing amusing inside any of these characters, and that includes the people they are involved with outside of the family. Olivia De Havilland, in one of her first solo starring vehicles, plays a character throwing herself unashamedly at a married man, while mom and pop Freida Inescort and in Hunter deal with the gossipy or harsh financial situations in her club and his office. I can't see this being like this on stage, but I could very much be wrong considering that it has never been revived.
At least Bonita Granville has the excuse of being a teenaged girl for being so badly behaved. Peter Willes seems justified in his frustration as the middle child, dealing with two rather annoying sisters. Una O'Connor and Beryl Mercer manage to get a few laughs as the servants. Roland Young, Alice Brady, Peggy Wood, Anita Louise and Walter Woolf King are lost among the outsiders, indicating that this has far too many characters. Unlike other successful stage plays successfully made into movies that featured an extensive cast ("Stage Door", "The Women", "The Doughgirls"), this just flies all over the place. It made me find myself disliking it more and more as it went on...and on...and on.