Aves Sem Rumo

In the 1890s, widow Margaret Carey (Fay Bainter) struggles to keep a roof over the heads of her four children. When they finally have a steady home, a scheming couple (Margaret Hamilton, Harvey Clark) try to take it away from them. Meanwhile the two daughters (Anne Shirley, Ruby Keeler) fall in love with the same man (James Ellison).

I'm always up for an Anne Shirley movie. She's one of the most under-appreciated actresses of her era and one of the prettiest, too. It's nice to see Ruby Keeler outside of a musical but it's easy to see why her career went nowhere when she wasn't tapping. After this she didn't do another movie for three years. Fay Bainter is wonderful as the saintly Mother Carey. It's too bad she isn't in the movie more in the second half. Margaret Hamilton and Walter Brennan make any movie better and that holds true here. This is the film debut of child actor Donnie Dunagan. That name might not mean much to a lot of you but Universal horror fans will recognize him as the heavily-accented boy from Tower of London and Son of Frankenstein, both also directed by this film's director Rowland V. Lee. He has lots of precocious lines and funny moments. He's not the best little actor but he still manages to steal the picture. Charming Americana that provides some laughs and tears. It's not perfect but if you like movies like Meet Me in St. Louis, you should enjoy this.

Family epic of the Carey family, as they go through good times and bad. They pack a lot of story into this one. At times, its so soapy sweet we want to hurl... those little kids say things way beyond their years. At other times, it swings back and forth between serious scenes and funny times. Keep an eye out for Margaret Hamilton (the Wicked Witch, who plays a mean old cow here too!) Astute viewers will recognize Virginia Weidler as the goofy little girl next door. Weidler was only about ten when she made this, but she was probably better known for playing the daughter in "The Woman" one year later. Mom and Dad Carey are played by Fay Bainter and Ralph Morgan.... Morgan was Frank Morgan's brother... another Wizard of Oz connection! Thank goodness they let Walter Brennan have a large role as the kind neighbor, or this one would have been too cutesy to take. I was getting pretty sick of the little kids antics, but maybe this was aimed toward a younger audience ? The wallpaper hanger (Lew Kelly) has a couple lines in this one, but oddly, of the parts he played in over 200 films, most were uncredited roles. Story by Kate Wiggin, who had also written "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm". Pretty good story, but it does get soapy, sudsy cute now and then.

Not bad but strictly B movie shenanigans that lays the syrup on pretty thick.

Originally assigned to Katharine Hepburn at the tail end of the first phase of her screen career when she had been branded box office poison. She realized that if this was the best RKO was going to offer her that her career was doomed and wisely bought out the remainder of her contract and fled back east to regroup returning in triumph a few years later with The Philadelphia Story.

The film does have a few things going for it, mainly the supporting cast. Fay Bainter is gentle and warm as Mother Carey but she is sidelined after the first quarter of the picture to make room for a few sappy love stories and some minor drama and a smidgen of comedy. Old reliables Walter Brennan and Margaret Hamilton both add a bit of flavor to the film but it's strictly a second string affair.

The story is about a family who loses the father early on in the film. But because they love each other so much and are so full of pluck and determination that they somehow live happy lives even though they are dirt poor. They live on love as well as the inexplicable deal that allow them to live in a beautiful mansion despite being so poor.

I like old fashioned films but, alas, I found "Mother Carey's Chickens" to be a bit too much--too cloying, too sentimental and, at times, a bit too miserable. I just think that there are better family dramas of the period than this one. I think if the film had a bit of humor and a bit less sentimentality (such as in "Life With Father" or "Meet Me in St. Louis"), it would have worked a bit better. It did have quite a bit of this humor near the ending but it could have used it throughout. Overall, it's just an okay but a tad syrupy time-passer.

This was a delightful surprise. I'd heard about the actresses who'd turned down the lead role and -- let's face it -- the title is pretty corny.

But it is a charming movie -- funny and touching by turns. The little boy in it gets fairly low billing but far too much screen time. He's icky and barely understandable in many scenes. Otherwise I'd rats the movie a full 10.

I am kind of a cynic when it comes to Americana but now and then, it really works; and this is one of those times.

The movie reminds me of "Meet Me In St. Louis," which it predates, in that it is about a strong, loving family that stays together and triumphs over odds.

Ruby Keeler is surprisingly good in the role turned down by Katharine Hepburn and others. Fay Bainter is at her most appealing. James Ellison is, as always, appealing, as are Anne Shirley and Walter Brennan. In a juicy role that came a year before the one that made her famous, Margaret Hamilton is the kind of villain moviegoers love to see get her comeuppance, which she and her hapless husband surely do, thanks to the ingenuity of the family and the two sisters' beaux.