This Time for Keeps

MGM may have been trying out a new family series like the Hardys when it came out with This Time For Keeps. I certainly could have seen Guy Kibbee and Irene Rich as the patriarch and matriarch of another wholesome all American family.

Kibbee and Rich have two daughters, Ann Rutherford and Virginia Weidler. Rutherford is slightly beyond the newlywed stage married to Robert Sterling.

Some trouble is brewing on the horizon. Kibbee likes his son-in-law well enough, in fact he always wanted a boy. He talks him into coming into the family real estate business, but Sterling does it against his better judgment. He likes Kibbee also, but when he goes to work for him, Sterling finds Kibbee smothering any initiative he takes.

As for Weidler she's going through her teen age angst especially around young Richard Crane. All these problems naturally get resolved in the end.

This Time For Keeps is a pleasant enough family film which didn't embarrass anyone at MGM's B picture unit. And I'm sure it played well enough with any of MGM's featured products. Look quickly for a small bit by Ava Gardner and for me the hit of the film was seeing Richard Crane, the future Rocky Jones Space Ranger decked out as a ballerina at a costume party.