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The brunette, beautiful Joan Bennett is the main attraction in "The Housekeeper's Daughter," a 1939 Hal Roach movie. With her similarly-shaped face, hair-do, and hairline, the dark-haired Joan is reminiscent of Hedy Lamar, whereas, as a blonde, she resembled her sister Constance. In my opinion, Bennett was the most beautiful actress who auditioned for Scarlett in Gone with the Wind and didn't get it.

Bennett plays Hilda, a gun moll who gets sick of the life and goes home to mother. Her mother, Olga (Peggy Wood) is the housekeeper and lives in the home of a wealthy man, Robert Randall (John Hubbard) who has aspirations to be a reporter. When two reporters (Adolphe Menjou and William Gargan) see Randall throwing around money, they stick to him like glue and wind up sleeping at his home and meeting mother and daughter. Randall, meanwhile, is hot on a murder case, which will eventually combine Hilda's past and present.

This is a pleasant enough, well acted film in the beginning but deteriorates into a lot of slapstick later on. Victor Mature has an early role, and Donald Meek is the harried newspaper editor.

As a side note about William Gargan, he had a laryngectomy in 1960 and spoke thereafter with the use of an artificial voice box. He spent the remaining 19 years of his life involved with the American Cancer Society and warning about the hazards of smoking.

In some ways an odd mix, "The Housekeep's Daughter" is generally well done and extremely well acted.

Joan Bennett looks more beautiful than ever, but doesn't have much to do, except look beautiful.

Adolph Menjou is simply always great, although his character makes a change that doesn't really ring true -- but so what?

Some of the finest of Hollywood's character actors make this just so much fun to watch, and seeing Victor Mature in an early role additionally makes "The Housekeeper's Daughter" a joy.

John Hubbard gives a good portrayal of a rather spacey character, but for some reason never did become the star he probably deserved to be, though he did keep busy most of the rest of his life.

I can recommend "The Housekeeper's Daughter" despite its minor flaws. Those flaws are vastly outnumbered by the joys.

Scrambled comedy more interesting for some of its players than anything else. There's sort of a plot, but its more thrown together than anything that evolves. It's like if we just keep shouting and pushing something funny is bound to happen.

On the cast side, Joan Bennett has way too much screen gravitas for a farce like this. She sure looks the part that guys would fall all over. Nonetheless, she also looks lost in the role. Good thing she soon paired up with film impresario Fritz Lang who sensed her spider woman potential. Note too, early presence of Victor Mature as a hunky gangster. No wonder he went on to starring roles. Then there's poor John Hubbard in the lead. Unfortunately, he has about as much comedic talent as I do, putting a hole in the movie's middle. But my real take-away is little George E. Stone as Benny who keeps popping up with unusual cups of coffee in the gentlest most self-effacing manner possible. He's like a demented little elf, a truly disturbing presence, at least in my movie book. I hope he finally found the right movie set. Just don't let him fix the coffee.

Anyway, I'd skip this over-cooked stew unless the only alternative is a politician's speech.

Joan Bennett is tempting as "The Housekeeper's Daughter". Ms. Bennett is given some great lines, fine direction (Hal Roach), and neat things to do - like putting those thigh bells on! She has a past, which comes back to haunt... she was involved with Victor Mature and a bunch of gangsters. Bennett desires the son in the house she tends, and he is a reporter working on a crime which begins to involve Bennett's past life. There is an interesting accidental "Houseboat Murder" to solve. Adolphe Menjou and William Gargan are okay as a couple of reporters. Overall, I found the "slapstick" is often more annoying than enjoying.

"Benny" makes a mean cup of coffee.

**** The Housekeeper's Daughter (10/26/39) Hal Roach ~ Joan Bennett, Adolphe Menjou, William Gargan

The sultry Joan Bennett adds some class to this tame comedy about a rookie reporter who stumbles upon a murder involving a mentally challenged serial killer and gangsters (one of whom is a debuting Victor Mature). It's slow to start and doesn't quite seem to know where it's going, but builds up to a decent finale.