We're Rich Again

Conventional screwball comedy, from a conventional play, about an ill-starred society wedding, in which the financially beleaguered mother (Billie Burke, doing her usual thing) and father (Grant Mitchell) hope to reclaim some lost wealth by marrying off their practical-minded daughter (Joan Marsh) to a rich twit (Reginald Denny). Other hangers-on include Edna May Oliver, not doing her usual thing at all, as a vigorous, boy-loving, polo-playing grandma, and Marian Nixon as a tongue-rattling cousin from Texas ("West Texas," she keeps correcting everybody). Nixon was usually a conventional leading lady, but she's more than up to the task of playing an annoying busybody, and she's the best thing in the film. There are some diverting plot twists and surprises, and the liquor and wisecracks flow pretty freely for a just-post-Code talkie. The director, William A. Seiter, did better work and worse work in a long career, but this is a fun screwball effort, with family dynamics echoed in later sitcoms and some good slapstick.

This is the story of a prosperous man who tries to extricate his wealthy family from the doldrums. This movie is based on the play by Alden Nash in which Reginald Denny played a vacillating matrimonial object (groom) and Joan Marsh the prospective bride and Billie Burke as her mother and Grant Mitchel as the depressed ex-millionaire father. Veteran actress Edna May Oliver is really cracking as the polo playing grandmother, who is also very interfering and sometimes annoying in a funny sort of way. They are in finer mettle and everyone pitches in to "rescue" them from a court clerk who wants to serve legal papers for the bills Grant Mitchell owes. The film is supposed to be off-beat comedy and a screwball slapstick, but it does not go well and the film falls short of a first rate comedy.

I concur! WE'RE RICH AGAIN is a delight from the first frame to the last, sadly neglected among it's peers, but definitely worth a look. I ran this film for my movie crowd here in Sacramento and they howled through it, especially the antics of Edna May Oliver and beefcake Crabbe. At the time it was released the critics lambasted Marian Nixon but I think she's a hoot as the oh so talkative cousin. The film survives in pristine condition as well, it looks as if it were filmed yesterday. Billie Burke has several wonderful scenes, one of my favorites is when she gives the butler a quarter and rattles off a huge grocery list, the perplexed servant does his best to assure Burke that he'll acquire everything on the list. Oliver and her polo buddies steal the show, be sure to catch this film!

It may not be on the level of His Girl Friday or Bringing Up Baby but it is a lot of silly fun. This film will make you forget your problems and cheer you up.

The only character that is a letdown us Billy Burke's. She basically plays the same character as in Dinner at Eight.

Buster Crabbe barely speaks until the end of the film but he steals every scene he is in.

It's a setup used in more than one 1930s comedy: the once-prosperous family living in a huge house and enjoying expensive tastes but going broke fast. In this case, Grant Mitchell is the perpetually exasperated husband and Billie Burke his slightly wacky wife.

One grown daughter is serious-minded and about to be married, while the other daughter is wild and fun-loving and does crazy things like dragging home Buster Crabbe in swimming trunks.

Joan Marsh and Gloria Shea are fine as the contrasting daughters; Reginald Denny is solid as always as Marsh's wealthy fiancé, who may bring some much-needed cash into the family; Edna May Oliver is hilarious as the polo-playing grandmother.

The plot starts out slowly but picks up steam with the arrival of Marian Nixon as Cousin Arabella, who talks nonstop and stirs up trouble on multiple fronts.

Despite lots of fast talk, there really isn't that much great dialog...however, the characters do grow on you, especially the nutty but charming Marian Nixon and persistent fiancé Reginald Denny.

It's nothing too exciting but it's certainly pleasant enough...and Crabbe's surprising bit at the end really is cute.