So's Your Aunt Emma!

Zasu Pitts is wonderful as Emma Bates, an unassuming small town lady who makes a trip to the big city to see a boxing match and ends up holding her own in the middle of a mob battle.

Zasu is sweet and odd as Aunt Emma, staid in appearance, a respectable woman; however, Zasu is a riot when she takes on the role of "Ma Parker," that much-feared lady gangster who carries a gun in her umbrella and can "shoot silver dollars out of the air."

The plot, for what it's worth, involves Emma's visit to see the boxer son of an old flame, some gangsters running the boxing game, some shooting and kidnapping, and a newspaperman who can't catch a scoop if it lands in his lap but is nevertheless a good hearted guy with whom Zasu strikes up a friendship. It all wouldn't make much sense, I'm sure, if you were to study it too closely…but why would you?

Lots of fun, especially for anyone who's a fan of Zasu's peculiar charm.

What makes this daft little crime thriller so much fun, is the underlying premiss that even the nastiest of criminal types will still defer to a determined, feisty old lady - even if they would otherwise happily pull out the teeth of their enemies with a blunt screwdriver! Zasu Pitts is just such an old spinster, who becomes ensnared with a gang who are rigging boxing matches before unexpectedly (and really completely implausibly) being implicated with the deadly murderess "Ma Parker"! It's a lovely, simple little yarn - peppered with some wonderfully Mary Poppins-esque language; never a cuss word crosses her lips; and her ability to get squiffy by just holding the glass adds a gentle, friendly, class to this simple story. There are others in the cast, but they don't - nor d.

It helps enormously if you're a big fan of Zasu Pitts before you tune in to So's You're Aunt Emma. She's the whole show in this film or as she put it, the big cheese in this rat trap.

Fluttery spinster Pitts decides to take a trip to New York from her little town to see Bud McTaggart fight in a preliminary bout at the Garden. She was involved back in the day with his father and Bud could have been her kid.

But once Pitts hits the umbrella she constantly carries makes her mistaken for the notorious Ma Parker known to carry a rod in that umbrella and known to shoot fast and deadly. Pitts gets involved in a gang war with racketeers Tris Coffin and Douglas Fowley and she also helps reporter Roger Pryor who befriends her gain the scoop of the year.

I have to say Pitts is really especially after being schooled by Pryor she picks up all the gangster lingo.

So's Your Aunt Emma is funny in spots, but you'd better be a fan of Zasu Pitts.

It's an eye-catching title, sure to get attention of wartime audiences looking for escape. Pitts' character Aunt Emma is an inventive comedic creation. On one hand, she's a sedate old maid ruled by two prim sisters; on the other, once outside their influence and taking up with newspaper reporter Terry (Pryor), she gains self-confidence and transforms subtly into an assertive mastermind. Too bad the clotted narrative crowds her transformative humor; that is, until the end when she gets needed showcase having mastered the street-tough lingo of that day. It's like Mother Hubbard sounding like Al Capone.

The supporting cast includes familiar faces, such as Fowley, Hymer, Elliot, and Coffin. But I especially glom onto Elizabeth Russell. With her cat-like eyes, once you see her you don't forget her, as the great Val Lewton knew when he cast her in a number of his classic horror films of the 40's, eg. Cat People (1942).

All in all, it's an unusual light-hearted crime flick that unfortunately piles on too much plot that the clever Pitts and her fluttery humor must compete with.

Aunt emma (zasu pitts) gets caught up in a fight fixing mess when she's mistaken for the leader of a gang. She gets rough and tough to catch the crooks, even though she's a prim and proper young lady. It's all pretty over the top, and that's the running gag. And the city editor fires the one guy that has the whole story. It's okay. Emma saves the day, but the last twenty minutes were shot in the dark, so we never really see what happens. Pretty annoying. And right at the end, it sounds like one of the lines is dubbed out, so we don't even hear the punch line for what the old lady said. Even the captions couldn't catch it. More annoying. Keep an eye out for dick elliott.. he was the mayor in andy griffith. Directed by jean yarbrough. He had worked with kings of comedy hal roach and abbott and costello. Story by harry hervey. Pitts had started in the early silents, and made a zillion talkies, but was probably best known for mad, mad world. Bud mctaggart died young at age 39 in a swimming pool accident.