Tish

LOVE Marj Main (Ma Kettle and The Women)& Aline MacMahon...Aline STOLE the show, which ain't easy to do with M Main in the film... MacMahon should have won an award for this one, but the film itself has some problems... Lots of weird jumps forward in time, with time gaps & plot filled in by fast talking on the part of the 3 gal-pals. This film also dealt with some big issues for its time, with that naughty ol film production code in force at the time... it takes place during WW II, so that figures into the plot. There IS some sorrow, pain, and loss in this one, but it ends on KIND of a happy note, like any good WW II flick. Guy Kibbee is the ornery old cantankerous grandfatherly judge, who gets his come-uppance, as he usually did. Fun to watch, but keep those expectations in check. Some silly mis-understandings, similar to an episode of Three's Company. (But I do love anything with M Main or A. MacMahon.)

The best thing about this movie is the three spinsters, played perfectly by the three leading ladies. They are all consummate actresses, not "just" comedians, and they know how to handle their often wonderful lines wonderfully. It's all very innocent fun, but really very clever at times.

The rest of the movie, even Guy Kibbe's character, is forgettable.

Definitely a movie to see when you need a pick-me-up.

Catch this oddity the next time TCM drags it out of the pit. This vehicle for the grand old warhorse Marjorie Main features some of the Golden Age's greatest character actors and the talented and beautiful (if ultimately tragic) Susan Peters. But the sub-sitcom setups, rotten writing, inferior direction and editing, and at least one perverse (if not sickening) plot turn make this an unintentionally creepy little "B" picture indeed.

"Tish" was no doubt a tryout for the dazzling Peters (who the same year would appear to far greater effect in "Random Harvest"), but given how short her film resume is, it's a shame that this thing has to feature so prominently on it.

If you need proof that MGM didn't turn out "Mutiny on the Bounty" and "Mrs. Miniver" twice a week, seek no more.

Letitia ‘TISH' Carberry enjoys nothing more than controlling the lives & romances of all around her, aided and abetted by her two dearest friends - Lizzie Wilkins and Aggie Pilkington.

The popular characters from the stories by Mary Roberts Rinehart come alive in this funny, nostalgic (and nearly forgotten) film. Helping immeasurably in the movie's success is the casting of a trio of Hollywood's finest comedic character actresses. Bossy & down-to-earth, Marjorie Main tackles the title role and wrestles it into submission, her ever-present Swear Box ready to accept the coins she must deposit whenever she unlooses one of her colorful, G-rated oaths. As sensible Lizzie, Aline MacMahon brings a patrician respectability to her part, although that doesn't keep her from sitting on a rowboat's leak at a crucial moment. ZaSu Pitts becomes vague, fluttery Aggie, who still writes a hilarious memorial poem on the anniversary of her sweetheart's death.

Guy Kibbee is very droll as the judge whose life is made a misery by the feminine triumvirate. Among the young persons in whose lives they interfere are pretty Susan Peters & Virginia Grey. Movie mavens will recognize an uncredited Nora Cecil as one of the old ladies at the boarding house.

The film benefits from MGM's typically fine production values. The story becomes unexpectedly serious near the end, but by the closing moments hilarity reigns again as Tish once more starts to meddle.

It's nice to see the three great characters actresses, but they are given very little to work with. Marjorie Main's is the only developed character, and she seems miscast in it. Fine production values, to be sure, but this film is a mess from beginning to end. The script desperately needed many more re-writes, as you can't tell who's supposed to be in love with whom. People that you think are supposed to be good do cruel things, and then you're supposed to turn around and find them good again. Terribly tragic events are used as contrived plot devices, and passed over by the characters with little more than an "oh, too bad" by the characters. Then to compound the tragedy of this comedy is the back story: Susan Peters, so young and beautiful in this film married Richard Quine who played her love interest. She was paralyzed in a gun accident a few years later, and after trying to recover her career by working in a wheelchair, she fell into depression and decline and died. She had divorced Quine. He had a successful but largely forgotten career as a director, until he also fell into depression and committed suicide.