Matchmaking Mamma

Mack Sennett's MATCHMAKING MAMMA (1929) is one of the last silent comedy shorts filmed and boasts a fairly good cast and is a pleasant enough time-killer but alas has no real laughs. Pint-sized matron Daphne Pollard, married to her second husband (Johnny Burke), is producing an amateur play in an attempt at social climbing and landing young heir Matty Kemp for her daughter Carole Lombard. Trouble is Burke's daughter Sally Eilers shows up during rehearsals and he falls for her instead, despite initially thinking she was the maid.

This movie has a few brief scenes filmed in the early imperfect Technicolor. Ms. Pollard, something of a cross between Beatrice Lillie and character actress Maude Eburne, works hard to mine what little humor there is in the story. One major problem is Sally Eilers' bland wholesomeness cannot carry the story or be credibly more appealing than beautiful young Carole Lombard (who is fairly wasted here) as her stepsister. Matty Kemp, a Charles Farrell type, is quite handsome as the young male lead and smiles prettily and is appealing in a modest way. Plump young comedienne Madalynne Field, a Sennett staple, has a bit as the heftiest of the chorines.