The Mad Martindales

Funny film (it gets funnier as it goes along) stars Jane Withers as the younger daughter of a dippy architect (Alan Mowbray) in early 1900s San Francisco. He dreams about building a "bungalow development" but never spends much time on it since he's always off impulsively buying objets d'art.

Withers plays the sensible one who has to deal with unpaid servants, bill collectors, a next-door boyfriend (Jimmy Lydon), and her older sister (Marjorie Weaver) and her suitors. At one point see sells off all the furniture in the house to a Chinese pawnbroker to pay the mortgage. Next up she disguises herself as her sister to woo a rich man (Gig Young) only to get deeper into trouble. Everything comes together in the end, but there's still a surprise ending.

Withers was 16 here and is quite funny. Mowbray and Lydon are also quite good. Also in the cast are Kathleen Howard as the crabby granny, Steven Geray as the investor, George Reeves as an Italian suitor, Charles Lane as the bill collector, Robert Greig and Emma Dunn as the servants, Victor Sen Yung as the young pawnbroker, and silent star Charles Ray as a barbershop patron.

Gig Young is billed as Byron Barr, his real name.