Herbert Kalness (Guy Kibbee) is an opinionated man and a huge grouch, but his loving family puts up with him. Herbert is upset when daughter Alice (Patricia Ellis) becomes engaged to Andrew ... Read allHerbert Kalness (Guy Kibbee) is an opinionated man and a huge grouch, but his loving family puts up with him. Herbert is upset when daughter Alice (Patricia Ellis) becomes engaged to Andrew Goodrich (Phillip Reed). Andrew is a Harvard man, and Herbert hates stuffed shirts. After ... Read allHerbert Kalness (Guy Kibbee) is an opinionated man and a huge grouch, but his loving family puts up with him. Herbert is upset when daughter Alice (Patricia Ellis) becomes engaged to Andrew Goodrich (Phillip Reed). Andrew is a Harvard man, and Herbert hates stuffed shirts. After Herbert's rants ruin an engagement dinner for Alice, his wife Elizabeth (Aline MacMahon) d... Read all
Photos
- Junior Kalness
- (as Trent Durkin)
- Murphy
- (uncredited)
- IRS Tax Investigator
- (uncredited)
- MacGregor
- (uncredited)
- Miss Plunkett - Herbert's Secretary
- (uncredited)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe play opened on Broadway in New York City, New York, USA at the Biltmore Theatre (Samuel J. Friedman Theater since 2008), 261 W. 47th St., on 1 January 1934 and closed in May 1934 after 154 performances. The opening night cast included J.C. Nugent as Herbert and Elisabeth Risdon as Elizabeth.
- Quotes
Herbert Kalness: [Resisting the suggestion that his son go to college instead of going to work at Kalness' factory] I never saw a college man yet who was worth his salt - freshman year or any other year!
Goodrich Sr.: Aren't you being a bit severe on colleges, Mr. Kalness?
Herbert Kalness: "Colleges"? We don't have 'em any more. Big athletic institutions. Football teams. Baseball teams. Crews, swimmers, hockey players. Tiddlywinks teams for all I know. Careening around the country to get their pictures in the paper!
- ConnectionsVersion of Father Is a Prince (1940)
Supporting players include Marjorie Gateson as MacMahon's sister; Robert Barrat as her husband; Joseph Crehan as the IRS man; and George Chandler.
Straight-forward story, amusing comedy that pre-dates many of those situation comedy shows produced for television told within 30 minutes. Guy Kibbee succeeds in making his unsympathetic character likable while Aline MacMahon, as always, brings sincerity to her role. Helen Lowell plays a once-a-week housekeeper who finds it difficult to remember her line, "Dinner is served," at the gathering of the future in-laws. She gives a performance that would have have been more suitable to the likings of Ruth Donnelly.
Not as laugh-filled as the domestic stars of that genre ranging from the comic supplements of WC Fields, the wholesomeness of Will Rogers, the sentimental knowhow by Marie Dressler or the wackiness of Charlie Ruggles and Mary Boland, but this production, based on the play by Sophie Kerr, combines a little of all, and thanks to the delightful team of the tall but sad-eyed Aline MacMahon and short, fat and bald Guy Kibbee, these two secondary scene stealers from the classic Depression musical, GOLD DIGGERS OF 1933 (1933), make this rarely seen production worth viewing.
A sort of domestic comedy that might have prospered into a film series, but as it stands, nothing developed. BIG HEARTED HERBERT was remade by Warners as FATHER IS A PRINCE (1940) with Grant Mitchell assuming the role as the self-centered, egotistical father. Both movies, along with other MacMahon-Kibbee domestic comedies, can be seen and compared whenever presented on Turner Classic Movies. (**1/2)
- lugonian
- Nov 13, 2005
Details
- Runtime59 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1