Molly and Me

Probably the United Kingdom's most popular entertainer during the Thirties was Gracie Fields. She came over to the USA in the early Forties partly as a hands across the sea goodwill gesture and partly because of a scandal involving her new husband Monty Banks, real name Bianchini. Italians were not real popular over in the UK then, they were as bad as Germans, they never reached that degree of odiousness in the USA during World War II as Germans or Japanese.

In any event the American movie-going public got a real treat to see what our allies on the other side of the pond had been seeing for years. Molly And Me is very typical of the kind of character Fields did over there, the bright and chirpy working class woman with an every ready smile and song who solves everyone's problems. I only wish her work were more available here.

In any event out of work actress Gracie takes a job as a housekeeper for the rich and stuffy Monty Woolley who is expecting his son Roddy McDowall home. He and McDowall are distant from each other and while he's told Roddy that mother is dead, she in the person of Doris Lloyd is very much alive and living a sleazy life, divorced from Woolley. Monty wants to keep Lloyd away from their son.

When she arrives there after being hired by Reginald Gardiner the butler who is also a former thespian, Fields finds wholesale thievery among the staff and sacks the lot of them. She then hires a bunch of her former mates from the stock company she was with. Let's just say a whole lot of problems are solved before the film ends.

Gracie got to work with a few members of the British colony in America in Molly And Me. Yet the film from 20th Century Fox really did have the look and feel of one of her British films.

Despite good performances from Woolley, McDowall, and Gardiner, Molly And Me is totally a Gracie Fields production. I'm just glad this is available for American audiences. Do not miss this or any other of her work should TCM broadcast it.

An out of work troop of actors take over running a proper English gentleman home. They show the rather harsh man there should be more compassion for the only son he has.

While a lot of the humor is very deadpan, it's an interesting look at how simple the rich life was in the 30's and 40's.

The son Jimmy is played by a very young Roddy McDowall

I noticed when I looked through IMDb that there were two previous movies with the same title. I would assume this 1945 film is a remake, but IMDb doesn't give this information. I do know that there are no reviews for these earlier films and this probably is because the films have been lost to the ravages of time--a common occurrence with early films made on nitrate stock.

Molly is an out of work actress from the London music hall world. Because she needs the job, she uses her acting talent to play the part of a housekeeper and manages to captivate the gruff new master as well as his young and rather lost son. Using Molly's gift for common-sense and pluck, she manages to do a bang-up job--and makes this house truly a home.

This is the second time I've seen this version of "Molly and Me" and I do remember liking it a bit more the first time. Now it isn't that I disliked the movie seeing it again--I just noticed a shortcoming in the tempo of the film when I watched it tonight. I see now that Monty Woolley's gruff character goes from a curmudgeon to a nice guy way too quickly in the film. I think doing the transition a bit more slowly and a bit more realistically would have made for an even better film. BUT, it's hard to fault the movie too much, as it's a pleasant little musical comedy--a sweet sort of film they just don't make any more but that they made so well back in the old days. Plus, Gracies Fields and Woolley were both so marvelous--as were the supporting actors (especially Reginald Gardner). It's hard not to like this nice little film.

What a wonderful and thoroughly entertaining film this is, this is my first experience of Gracie Fields and purchased this due to Monty Woolley being in this, suffice to say not only am I a fan Of Monty's, but Gracie's, too.

There's a good mixture of fun, laughter, slapstick, farce, singing and a terrific, entertaining cast, as well as Monty and Gracie the main cast members to stand out for me are a very young Roddy McDowall (as Monty's son) and Reginald Gardner (as the Butler), the rest of the cast are all excellent and together with me the cast were clearly having a ball too!! My one and only problem with the film is that I wish it were longer, it's only 76 minutes long and just wish it'd been at least another 10-15 minutes more, but it's always a sure sign just how much you've enjoyed a film when you think this way I guess, If you enjoyed Monty Woolley in this then please check out The Man who came to dinner with Bette Davis, it's a terrific comedy, sadly only available on Region 1 at the moment.

Good sound and picture too, I've purchased this film in the Gracie Field's silver screen collection and that version at least has no subtitles whatsoever.

You don't like this, I don't like you. Recommended for old TCM fans and new generations exploring classic Hollywood fables. Gracie Fields, Monty Wooley and yes, that's Lovey Howell from Gilligan's Island.