Big Hearted Herbert

Does Guy Kibbee, a popular 1930's character actor, have what it takes to carry the lead role in an entire movie? This film gives us the answer: No. But it's fun watching him try.

Kibbee plays the sarcastically-named Big Hearted Herbert, a blowhard who scares neither his family nor his daughter's fiancé with his incessant yelling and complaining. In most movies, Kibbee provides comic relief as a blustery background character, which is usually great. But his non-stop bellowing throughout an entire film is too much of a good thing, particularly because Kibbee's one-note acting style doesn't display at any sweet or lovable side of his personality. Only the eye-rolling and put-downs of the other cast members hint that Big Hearted Herbert is really a softy. It's kind of like watching Jackie Gleason play Ralph Kramden in The Honeymooners, except that the richer and more successful Big Hearted Herbert is a way less sympathetic character, and the more talented Gleason was able to demonstrate occasional warmth.

But despite this, the film is actually fun to watch. The cast does a great job of dragging Big Hearted Herbert into reluctantly accepting the lifestyles of his son and daughter. Apparently Herbert hates lawyers, which is a problem, because his daughter wants to marry one. (Imagine how many issues Big Hearted Herbert would have in the 21st century, when his daughter would want to become one!) And his son doesn't want to go into the family business that Herbert worked so hard to build. It's all mostly handled in a lighthearted way, except toward the end, when Big Hearted Herbert's wife has to threaten some drastic action to drag Herbert into developing a more enlightened viewpoint.

So spend an hour with this movie, have a very pleasant time, and gain a better understanding of why the talented Mr. Kibbee was relegated to minor parts for most of his career.

Those who grew up hearing moralistic stories from their elders about how hard their childhoods were and how such rugged upbringings foster an appreciation for all things valuable might be surprised to watch this film from 1934--in the midst of the depression--whose main character, Herbert, is just such a person.

With a running time of about one hour, "Big Hearted Herbert" is a one-note comedy about a blowhard who loves to pontificate. Proud to be one of the common folk, he continually decries anything not status quo, including his family's wishes for higher education or changes in the home décor.

This film lampoons traditionalism for its own sake. It also suggests that it is not evil or immoral to enjoy life.

Guy Kibbee plays Herbert. His long-suffering wife Elizabeth is played by Aline MacMahon. One reviewer compared this film to "The Honeymooners". I do see a similarity between MacMahon's portrayal and Audrey Meadows' Alice Kramden.

In the end, the family finds a way to teach Herbert a lesson.

This is not the funniest comedy, but it is an interesting glimpse into depression era life.

This movie is a perfect capsule of 1930s family life in middle America. You have the grumpy put-upon (todays type-A) up-by-the-bootstraps businessman perfectly embodied by the actor who had these parts cornered: Guy Kibbee (a rare breed unto himself, they don't make them like him any more). Harried, pompous, blustery & scared to death his world is going to collapse around him & his perfect little family because of an IRS audit.

Then there is his perfect family: Aline McMahon as his wise, witty & imperturbable wife, Junior who's just about ready for college but wants to get into his uncle's engineering business not dad's plumbing fixture manufacturing plant. There's curly blonde-headed sis who wants to marry the Harvard grad & there's the cute kid brother who never saw a banana that he didn't want to eat. Finally there's the highly opinionated but lovable housekeeper.

This could have as easily been a successful radio show or a long-running comic strip. The situations are hilarious, the lines are sharp & the performances are absolutely on target. Plus you get a glimpse of a life (granted it's through the prism of Hollywood, but no less distorted than today's sitcoms of dysfunctional therapy-addicted families) that has long been extinct. Just imagine! - a locally owned family run plumbing fixture manufacturing company. Manufacturing plants used to pepper this country once upon a time, especially in the Northeast & parts of the Midwest; self-sustaining communities abounded. Half of today's population would give anything to return to those days.

If that doesn't shed light on the great divide that is cleaving this country, nothing can.

Aline MacMahon is her always wonderful self as the matriarch of a blue-collar family. The kids in this family have plans extending beyond the plumbing supplies business, however.

Guy Kibbee is such a likable actor we admire his performance but don't hate him as her skinflint husband.

It contains a scene that presages what is possibly the funniest in movie history: By that I mean the scene in which Irene Dunne masquerades as Cary Grant's sister in that greatest of all comedies, "The Awful Truth." Here we have the upright MacMahon putting on an act when guests come to dinner. The act lives up to her husband's penurious manner and is truly funny and is charming as well.

...except this film stars real people instead of the creations of Termite Terrace, the source of WB cartoons from the 30's to the 60's. Guy Kibbee is Herbert, but he is anything but big-hearted and is far from his usual role as a sweet older gentleman who is not necessarily the brightest bulb in the room. Here he is a cross between Scrooge and Yosemite Sam.

I say this film is practically a cartoon because the characters lack any perceivable motivation, and probably it was made that way on purpose, seeing it only has an hour's running time. The film is an enjoyable comedy in the fast-talking Warner Brothers tradition. You just have to sit back and enjoy the humor in the situations presented and try not to over analyze. Don't bother asking yourself why Herbert is always yelling at everybody, why he wants to hold on to what he has if he is always as unhappy as he seems, and why his wife would marry and stay with such a tight-fisted grouch in the first place - it will get you nowhere.

On the bright side, there is the comedy of Aline McMahon who decides to give husband Herbert what he claims he wants for a family - just plain folk - at the worst possible time, that time being a dinner Herbert is hosting for potential clients of his plumbing supply business. What she delivers is a 1930's version of the Beverly Hillbillies.

Recommended if you are in the mood to put your mind on hold and just laugh without thinking too hard.