Lady Tubbs

Alice Brady stars as a raucous railroad camp cook who suddenly inherits a fortune. After a whirlwind grand tour, she decides to invade Long Island society where her genteel niece (Anita Louise) is getting snubbed from the society lions because she has no "background." Brady has a field day as the outspoken "lady" who gets the goods on the snooty bunch of Long Islanders with the help of her trusty lawyer (Alan Mowbray) and her own common sense.

Film co-stars Douglass Montgomery as the society boy, June Clayworth as his snotty pal, Hedda Hopper as the society leader, Minor Watson as the railroad man, Harry Tyler and Walter Brennan as the long-lost relatives, and Clarence Wilson as the passerby.

Character of Lady Tubbs is a bit of "Auntie Mame" and "The Unsinkable Molly Brown" as Brady becomes a lady and is forced to join a fox hunt. One wonders if Patrick Dennis saw this film as a child and remembered it for his Auntie Mame character.

Alice Brady is a plain-spoken woman who's a cook on a work crew on the railroad. All the boys adore her for her temperament and cooking. Then she inherits half a million dollars, just as her niece, Anita Louise, informs her that she has been asked to marry Douglass Montgomery, a scion of Staten Island society. Miss Brady decides to break into society. Amiable Alan Mowbray explains that it's very difficult in England, but it's very easy to overawe Americans. So she puts on her fluttery screen persona and is a hit, especially with Montgomery's parents, snobby Russell Hicks and Hedda Hopper.

This is the first I've ever heard there was society on Staten Island. Until the 1950s it was farmland, with large German and Italian populations, and it wound up as part of New York because New Jersey lost a boat race. Anyway, once you accept that, the story proceeds apace. Although you may feel, as I do, that Miss Brady's standard character is a bit too arch for a leading role, there are certainly other things to keep an audience amused, like a comic fox hunt, and a cast that includes Lumsden Hare, minor Watson, and even Walter Brennan in one of his last uncredited roles.