The title role of Stella is played by Ann Sheridan, the only one in a family of
lunkheads who earns a decent living, as a secretary to Leif Erickson as an insurance salesman and head of the branch in their Cabot Cove like New England
town. She puts up with a lot with a daft mother Evelyn Varden, a pair of scatterbrained sisters, Marion Marshall and Randy Stuart, and most of all a pair
of seasonal workers the congenitally lazy David Wayne and Frank Fontaine.
And there's Uncle Joe who dies at the beginning of the film. He was sparking
the widow Lea Penman who owns the resort hotel the whole family is employed at but Sheridan. The description of him is a lazy lout and obnoxious
and apparently good for only one thing as Penman attests. The family employment is seasonal, they all go on unemployment when the season is over.
But one fine day a family picnic which Sheridan is not at Uncle Joe gets drunk
and stupid and gets himself killed trying to pick a fight with the nephews-in-law. Instead of reporting the crime the two geniuses Wayne and Fontaine bury the body. But then when there's insurance money involved we've got to
find a body and then they have a bumper crop of stiffs.
As this involves an insurance claim the most proper Mr. Erickson gets to investigate before approving a claim. At the same time Victor Mature from the home office gets in the act on the claim and in competition for Stella.
Both Mature and Erickson are a bit guilty of thinking with their male members,
but Erickson decidedly more so.
Stella reminds me of one of Alfred Hitchcock's lesser efforts The Trouble With
Harry. Hitch tried for black comedy, this film is far less subtle. Both were
passably entertaining, but really miss the mark.
Victor Mature kind of misses in the light touch department. He's all right but
can you imagine Cary Grant in the same part?
I also can't imagine why the sisters couldn't do better in their choices of husbands. Both married way below their league.
Stella does have a few laughs in it however. The punishment worked out for
Wayne and Fontaine is quite appropriate.
