Mother Carey's Chickens

MOTHER CAREY'S CHICKENS (RKO Radio, 1938), directed by Rowland V. Lee, from the novel by Kate Douglas Wiggin, is a rarely seen family movie in which the title might be at fault in having little or no recognition. In fact, the background as of how this movie came to be is much better known than the motion picture itself. First off, this was supposed to be another variation of RKO Radio dealing with literary classics. The studio did very well five years earlier with Louisa May Alcott's LITTLE WOMEN (1933) starring Katharine Hepburn and Joan Bennett. Now with numerous hits and misses over the years, RKO Radio was inspired in placing Hepburn in this production, along with Ginger Rogers, whom she had recently appeared successfully in STAGE DOOR (1937) to play her sister. Hepburn bought out her contract and Rogers, of course, bowed out as well. The final result was replacing its proposed major stars with featured performers. Anne Shirley, a resident RKO actress mostly in the "B" picture unit, stepped in for the role of Nancy, and Ruby Keeler, a tap dancing sweetheart of Warner Brothers musicals from 1933 to 1937, surprisingly selected in the second lead as Katharine, making this her only non-musical performance. She's quite effective in period costumes and long dark curls. Although this didn't become a two hour production on a lavish scale, at 82 minutes, with some sudden fade-outs indicating cut scenes, especially towards the middle, the movie on the whole is relatively good.

Set during the Spanish-American War during the late 1890s in the state of Rhode Island, the story centers upon the Carey family: Captain John Carey (Ralph Morgan), Margaret, his wife (Fay Bainter); and their four children whom Mother "Hen" calls her "chickens," young adults Nancy (Anne Shirley) and Katherine (Ruby Keeler); teenager Gilbert (Jackie Moran), and little Peter (Donnie Donegan, making his movie debut), the youngest and most troublesome of the bunch. All the Careys want is a permanent place to live, after many years of moving from house to house. Captain Carey leaves his family after only spending a day with them while on military leave, and sometime later, on his birthday, by which the family celebrates during his absence, a telegram reaches them reading that Carey was killed in action. Mother Carey strives to keep her family together in spite of some hardships and financial problems. Their wealthy Aunt Bertha (Alma Kruger) agrees to take them in, but the family refuses to ever leave their mother. Later, the Careys "claim" a mansion which Mr. Popham (Walter Brennan) rents to them at $60 a year. During the course of the story, Nancy and Katherine each fall in love with Ralph Thurston (James Ellison), a town schoolteacher, who wins one of them while the other becomes interested in loving another, Doctor Thomas Hamilton (Frank Albertson), the son of the real estate man (George Irving) who arrives to evict the Careys when the homestead is put up for sale because of unpaid taxes, with the intention of selling the home to the prospective buyers, Pauline and Clarence Fuller (Margaret Hamilton and Harvey Clark) who intend on moving in with the intrusive Pauline not taking no for an answer.

The supporting cast consists of child actress Virginia Weidler as Lally Joy, a little girl in pig tails who not only wears her shoes on backwards, but has a crush on the teen-aged Gilbert Carey to a point of becoming his shadow; Phyllis Kennedy (who sometimes looks like comedian Judy Canova) as the Carey family cook; and Lucille Ward as Mrs. Popham. Of all the actors in this photo-play, little Donnie Donegan not only gets plenty of screen time in being naughty, but enough closeups to give indication that this little boy must be related to either the director or the person behind the camera. Donegan even gets the film's final fadeout. Not quite the Jackie Coogan-type when it comes to talent, he is best known today for his sizable role in Rowland V. Lee's upcoming project, THE SON OF FRANKENSTEIN (Universal, 1939) starring Basil Rathbone, in which Donegan plays another Peter, but with the last name of Frankenstein.

More amusing than dramatic, especially when the Carey's attempt to discourage their prospective home buyers (Hamilton and Clark) by pretending the house to be haunted, MOTHER CAREY'S CHICKENS comes off better with its casting. After viewing this production on numerous occasions, it's apparent that Hepburn and Rogers would have been all wrong in their parts. Anne Shirley became the ideal choice as Nancy and Ruby Keeler is surprisingly effective as the other sister, but this is Fay Bainter's show, Hollywood's resident mother and title character. Her mother to daughter talks about first love come off remarkable well.

Revamped by Walt Disney as SUMMER MAGIC (1963), with Dorothy McGuire in the Bainter role, comparing these two adaptations makes it clear that, in spite of added songs, color and the Disney charm, along with eliminating the father, thus, introducing Mother Carey as a widow, both films are so different that it's hard to compare them as basis from the same story.

A suitable movie especially for Mother's Day, MOTHER CAREY'S CHICKENS, which formerly played on American Movie Classics for several years prior to 1993, can be seen occasionally on Turner Classic Movies. (***)

Widowed Fay Bainter and her two sons and two daughters move into a house and turn it into a boarding house. When the house is sold from under them, what will they do?

Katherine Hepburn was originally considered for a role in this movie, which looks like a follow-up to Little Women. She turned down the role and bought out her contract. As the movie exists, with direction by Rowland Lee, it was a wise decision. Although filled with good incidents and some fine supporting players -- Walter Brennan, Margaret Hamilton, Alma Kruger, Ralph Morgan -- there is no clear sense of more to it than that. In tone it seems caught between a situation comedy and nostalgia for the simpler days of the Mauve Decade, with a strong taste of the necessity of having enough money to get by on. Daughters Anne Shirley and Ruby Keeler are cute enough, and sons Jackie Moran and Donnie Dunagan charming enough. However, while good enough on its own terms, it's little more than that.

I agree with most of the other comments that this is an enjoyable but not very noteworthy film. Keeler was surprisingly dull here; she should have stuck to musicals. What I really enjoyed, though, were some scenes with the little boy. The director simply turned him loose with some very well-chosen props and let the camera roll. The results are a child being a child--curious, mischievous, determined--and a very charming and unusual addition to the film they prove to be! The wallpaper scene is priceless.

The story is about a family who loses the father early on in the film. But because they love each other so much and are so full of pluck and determination that they somehow live happy lives even though they are dirt poor. They live on love as well as the inexplicable deal that allow them to live in a beautiful mansion despite being so poor.

I like old fashioned films but, alas, I found "Mother Carey's Chickens" to be a bit too much--too cloying, too sentimental and, at times, a bit too miserable. I just think that there are better family dramas of the period than this one. I think if the film had a bit of humor and a bit less sentimentality (such as in "Life With Father" or "Meet Me in St. Louis"), it would have worked a bit better. It did have quite a bit of this humor near the ending but it could have used it throughout. Overall, it's just an okay but a tad syrupy time-passer.

This was a delightful surprise. I'd heard about the actresses who'd turned down the lead role and -- let's face it -- the title is pretty corny.

But it is a charming movie -- funny and touching by turns. The little boy in it gets fairly low billing but far too much screen time. He's icky and barely understandable in many scenes. Otherwise I'd rats the movie a full 10.

I am kind of a cynic when it comes to Americana but now and then, it really works; and this is one of those times.

The movie reminds me of "Meet Me In St. Louis," which it predates, in that it is about a strong, loving family that stays together and triumphs over odds.

Ruby Keeler is surprisingly good in the role turned down by Katharine Hepburn and others. Fay Bainter is at her most appealing. James Ellison is, as always, appealing, as are Anne Shirley and Walter Brennan. In a juicy role that came a year before the one that made her famous, Margaret Hamilton is the kind of villain moviegoers love to see get her comeuppance, which she and her hapless husband surely do, thanks to the ingenuity of the family and the two sisters' beaux.