Chatterbox

Jenny Yates lives with her grandfather because her mother died some time ago. However, she holds some resentment towards her grandfather because he essentially tossed the mother out of the house after she left to try to become an actress. Now, many years later, Jenny has a chance to leave home to act in the same play that her mother starred in...and although her grandfather is gruff and grumpy about this, he's not about to disown her like he did his daughter...by Jenny doesn't know this. So, she takes a giant leap and joins a traveling company of actors...and finds out it's not all it's cracked up to be.

Apart from seeing one of the theater company members in black-face, this is a very good film...enjoyable and with a few fun moments. This is a good showcase for Miss Shirley...one of her better films of the 1930s.

Charming film about a country girl named Jenny (Anne Shirley) with big dreams and her head in the clouds. She dreams of following in her late mother's footsteps and becoming a stage actress. Through a series of events she finds her dream actually coming true. At least that's what she thinks, as she's really being used by an unscrupulous producer who knows she's terrible and has cast her in a comedy while poor Jenny thinks she's playing a straight drama.

Anne Shirley is the whole show here. She has some good support from the likes of Edward Ellis, Erik Rhodes, Phillips Holmes, and Margaret Hamilton (in one of her more approachable roles). Oh and Lucille Ball (with platinum blonde hair!) has a small but amusing part. But Anne Shirley is the star in every sense of the word. She's such a treat to watch. Her sensitive, lovable performance carries the movie. Her portrayal of Jenny Yates is one of the more endearing characterizations I've ever seen on film. It's impossible not to like this girl and still have a heart. It's a very pleasant, enjoyable film with some nice comedic touches and a little bit of romance too. Strays off course slightly at the climax but it ends well. Give it a shot and I'm sure you won't be disappointed.

Some big names in "Chatterbox" - Anne Shirley is Jenny, trying to get away from an impossible situation. Lucy is in here as a very blond "Lillian Temple", in one of her earlier, credited roles. Margaret Hamilton (Wizard of OZ !) is "Tippy", the kindly landlady. Erik Rhodes, who made those fun, silly, films with Gene Raymond and Ann Sothern, is here, speaking in his own, regular voice. I think this is the first time I have heard him speak without using a silly, out-landish accent. Rhodes is "Fisher", directing the group of actors in which Jenny so badly wants to act. What Jenny doesn't realize is that she is the comedic part of a show she has always taken seriously, since her mother was in it years ago. It's fun to see the big names in this one, but the story itself is pretty lame... like the episode (every episode) of "Threes Company" where things could have been cleared up SO much earlier if any one of ten people had said one simple thing. anyhoo. It's okay. Nothing too special. Directed by George Nichols... died quite young (42) after a car crash.

This is an endearing movie of times gone by. Nice performances by Anne Shirley and Margaret Hamilton. Jenny wants to live out her dreams by acting in a part in a play her mother had played in previously. Her dreams are innocent and naive, and she is taken advantage of by shallow theater types who mislead her. She takes a hard lesson on real life in the theater and who to trust. Anne Shirley shows her talent in a challenging role. This movie is also interesting for the actors in it that one would not expect or show their talents as character actors -- Margaret Hamilton and Lucille Ball. This movie is not for everyone, but is likely to be well appreciated by those who cherish days when movies highlighted innocence and virtue.

Chatterbox is a really innocent film that could actually use an update today in the sense that some things that were done in the Thirties might seem as camp to us now as Anne Shirley's mother's favorite role from the Victorian Age.

Anne Shirley a devoted daughter to her late mother who was a prominent stage actress during the Victorian Era dreams of success on the stage much to the dismay of her down to earth father Edward Ellis. He wishes she'd just settle down and marry a responsible young man which doesn't include their farm hand George Offerman or Phillips Holmes, a rich kid who'd rather paint than make money. Holmes is as much a trial to his father Granville Bates as Shirley is to Ellis.

Anyway when a small theater company wants to revive the play, Anne eagerly wants the part and gets it of course on the strength of her name. But with changing public taste what was great Victorian melodrama back in the day is now high camp and played absolutely straight might bring down the house.

We hear about many of the stage legends of the past and the names come down to us, but you never see the works revived because public tastes have changed. With film you can measure the changing tastes of the public and when reviewing items for this forum you always have to try and watch it through the eyes of the public of the time as well as through your own. Sometimes films are hopelessly dated and you must say so.

However Chatterbox is an interesting film because it deals with the phenomenon of changing public tastes in a gentle manner. I daresay it could be remade today and some of the work that was done on the stage then would be camp today.

Not everything lasts forever.