Always in Trouble (1938) User Reviews

An entertaining bit of fluff

[OldPolitico · 6/10 · 24 May 2006]

WARNING! Spoiler - although this is a 1938 comedy with a fairly predictable happy ending.

Starring a 12-year old Jane Withers (Josephine the Plumber in a series of memorable TV ads in the 50s and 60s) who insists on being called Gerry and not Geraldine, the film opens with Gerry instructing the butler Rogers (Arthur Treacher - who gets high billing but has disappointingly little screen time) in the fine art of splits - a knife throwing game rather like mumbledypeg only a bit more dangerous. This sets up two key elements of the story - a nouveau riche family a bit too "stuffy" for tomboy Gerry's liking and Gerry's precocious ability to manipulate adults into cooperating in her ideas about having fun or doing good.

The plot, such as it is, revolves around a series of Gerry's little plots which by turns cause troubles and then solve them. When the family - Gerry, her older sister Virginia, her mother, and her father's brother Uncle Ed, but with her father being impersonated by one of his clerks - shipwrecks on an apparently deserted island, Gerry enlists the handsome young clerk Pete in a plan to use their Swiss Family Robinson circumstances to remind her family of their life before wealth and servants.

This plan seems to fail when they find a house on the island and then a gang of kidnappers arrives. But, while preparing dinner for the kidnappers, Gerry's mother (Nana Bryant) and Uncle Ed (Eddie Collins) do recall fondly how much everyone enjoyed her cooking and how much impromptu entertaining they did in the good old days before they were rich.

At this point, Gerry's shenanigans, aimed at discomfitting the kidnappers, begin to remind one a bit of The Ransom of Red Chief. Meanwhile, we have a budding romance between the clerk (Robert Kellard) and the older sister (Jean Rogers - whom you might recall from the Flash Gordon serials) also egged on by Gerry.

For the mandatory happy ending, the father (Andrew Tombes) arrives by seaplane with the US Navy and the kidnappers are arrested, Virginia falls in love with Pete, and Pete delivers a sound spanking to Gerry who interrupts her screams of protest for a smile and a wink to let us know that everything worked out according to her plans after all.

On an Island with Jane. HELP!

[mark.waltz · 4/10 · 15 May 2017]

20th Century Fox had two contract "Little Miss Fix It's", both as different as night and day. Shirley Temple got the top of the bill "A" features, while Jane Withers seemed perfectly content with the "B's". In a sense, she seemed more like an adult than some of her older characters, certainly delivering mature dialog with enthusiasm and a wicked grin behind her well meaning scheming.

She's the younger daughter of a wealthy businessman, forced by a domineering wife and older daughter to lay low "for health reasons". Somehow, Withers, mom Nana Bryant, uncle Eddie Collins, and sister Jean Rogers and ends up on a deserted island with young business associate Robert Kellars where they encounter a group of smugglers (Charles Lane among them) and it's up to the brave Withers to save the day.

Silly and unbelievable, this has a few funny moments, and Withers seems a decade older than her 15 years. She has good chemistry with both Collins (the dog in "The Blue Bird") and Arthur Treacher, seen all too briefly as the butler. This really lacks laughs, making it a bit of a misfire. Considering that this is supposed to be a deserted island and most of the footage there is set in the family's island getaway home proves the lack of imagination. Withers didn't make many classics, and it takes more than just her charm to make a successful feature, bottom of the bill or not.

Excruciating

[mls4182 · 2/10 · 1 April 2023]

During the Great Depression, did the public really want to see a big porker like Jane Withers acting like an obnoxious spoiled brat?

Not a single moment of this stinker is entertaining let alone funny. One would think this was played in drive One for horny teens who never watched.

I pity the cast. This film is completely hopeless. The script is obnoxious. There is one telephone gag that is stupid to the point of being painful that goes on and on.

The good news is that later in life, Jane was able to vindicate herself. She became Josephine the Plumber and was at least able to make use of herself by unclogging toilets.

Painful to watch.

[planktonrules · 2/10 · 21 November 2023]

"Always in Trouble" is a painfully unfunny B-movie from Twentieth Century-Fox. It stars Jane Withers, a young actress who could be quite engaging (she was great in "Bright Eyes")...but here she comes off as manipulative and unlikable. The story is supposed to be kooky and fun. It isn't.

Jerry (Withers) lives in a very nice house, as her father has struck it rich. I have no idea why, but as soon as one of her father's employees shows up, she begins manipulating him to do her bidding....and it often seemed cruel and pointless. Soon she has the guy dressing up as her father and taking his place on a family boating...and then when the family discovers the ruse, Jerry pretends to know nothing about it. What's next? I don't care.

A film with manipulation could be fun. But Jerry comes off as annoying and pointlessly manipulative. As for the employee, it's hard to believe ANYONE would do Jerry's bidding and the whole mess makes little sense and is tough to finish. In fact, after a while, I couldn't take any more and turned it off....a rarity for me not to finish a movie...even a bad one. Annoying and confusing...and that boating sequence, ouch, was it bad.