According to Mrs. Hoyle

My mother loved this movie and whenever it would show on TV she would stop what she was doing and watch it.

I saw this movie maybe 8 to 10 times by the time I entered high school. Mom was fan of Spring Byington because she was an early TV comedy star. But there were other reasons as well. For one - Mom had met Ms. Byington in person on at least two occasions while living in Hollywood during the early 1950s. But it was also because she married my father and our family name was --- yes, you guessed it --- Hoyle, So my mother was also "Mrs. Hoyle." There was another reason as well: Before my mother met my father and took on the surname "Hoyle" - she met Ms. Byington in person while working at a cleaning business in North Hollywood, right across the street from a major movie studio (now a studio and theme park). Ms. Byington (along with many others working at the studio) would bring some of their personal laundry to my mothers business since it was so close to the studio. I loved watching her movies her show with Mom. Sadly she has become forgotten. Rest in peace - we loved you.

The always delightful Spring Byington stars as the title character in this not-so-delightful movie. She is an elderly widow who has spent her life as a teacher in a tough neighborhood setting bad boys on the straight and narrow. When ex-gangster Anthony Caruso buys the run-down residential hotel she lives in and starts to rehabilitate it, he wants to kick out the occupants, but Miss Byington charms him into letting her stay and even gets him and most of his henchmen into donating to the local church. However, a couple of them rob a jewelry store. One gets shot, and the other hides the loot in Miss Byington's room, and she winds up on trial. There are the usual obnoxious Startling Revelations that wrap up the story in a sickening manner.

The talent on view performs their tasks well enough, but director Jean Yarborough brings nothing to the cheap Monogram programmer and the script was co-written by Scott Darling, best remembered for writing dozens of Christie comedies in the 'Teens and 20s and three of Laurel & Hardy's worst features in the 1940s. As much as I enjoy Miss Byington's warm, motherly screen personality, this is one that adds no luster to her career.

Sweet, cuddly Spring Byington always played the dear, warm, laughing, slightly ditzy, little old lady. Born in 1886, she was already in her 60s when she made "According to Mrs. Hoyle", clearly a pun on "The rules, according to Hoyle". She lives in a hotel, and hasn't seen her husband in many years. She gets caught up in the intrigue when a longtime gangster buys the hotel, and tries to evict all the residents. Some other residents commit some acts that aren't so legal, and the coppers are sure that Mrs. Hoyle is at the heart of it. Great premise. and there are so many ways the actual plot could have gone. Anthony Caruso is "Morganti", the kingpin who may or may not be done with the life of crime. Only FIVE votes on IMDb so far, so they must NEVER show this one on Turner Classics. It's a good story, but the picture and sound quality are pretty rough for the first five minutes. It does get better after that. Very entertaining. Story moves right along. Some twists towards the end, but it's all in great fun. Definitely worth the viewing. and all based on a short story in Good Housekeeping by Jean Owen. Not great, but not bad either.