Here Comes Cookie

George Burns and Gracie Allen: my favorite Hollywood couple of the golden age! And this might just be my favorite movie of theirs. At least so far!

I'm on a bit of a George Burns and Gracie Allen kick after discovering that one of the ways to fall asleep peacefully at night is to listen to Old Time radio. I first started listening to the old detective shows, because they do sound soothing - but be careful, because they can get into your subconscious while you're sleeping and impact the kind of dreams you'll have. So, I found out the hard way that it's much better to listen to something lighthearted like the George Burns and Gracie Allen Show, and I fall asleep feeling confident that my dreams will be at least not scary. They are such a comfort to me, those two!

My favorite part about this movie - the way Gracie Allen keeps calling George Burns Georgie Porgie. I could just feel the chemistry between them, and how wholesome their relationship was in real life, as mirrored by the wholesomeness of their relationship in this movie, however farcical it is.

Bonus points for the fact that Gracie Allen's father in the movie is named Harrison, my surname. Whenever my name or my girl's name is in a movie, I always know there's a positive message to be found there for me - a personal message. And I certainly found one here, one of lightheartedness and love.

So glad George and Gracie existed in this world, and thank God for the film restoration people that make sure old movies like these are not forgotten but live on through the passage of time.

Here Gracie Allen excels. Her mind is delightfully mixed up and what she comes out with is completely wacky. She is an absolute scream and poor old George Burns is on the receiving end as per usual trying to make whatever sense he can out of it all.

Gracie is one of George Barbier's daughters. The other is Phyllis (Betty Furness) and she is engaged to a Hispanic - Ramon (Rafael Storm) - who is only interested really in getting his hands on Daddy's loot. (He is a millionaire). George (Burns) is Barbier's secretary. Barbier is at his usual blustery best and as a way of defeating Ramon's purpose - gives over his fortune to Gracie for 60 days so he can go to some remote place for a rest. Meanwhile Gracie has become interested in things theatrical and has turned the mansion into a flop house for out of work thespians. And, from there she is going to put on a show!

This is one of those madcap comedies where any sense of realism has to be chucked out of the window. All one has to sit back and enjoy, having many a laugh along the way.

Also in the cast is Andrew Tombes as "Botts" the butler, Jack Powell - a drummer who bangs his drumsticks on anything, not necessarily drums and a whole host of other variety acts.

The plot is thin, the premise even thinner. However, Grace Allen is her usual ebullient self, somehow even in her "dimwittedness" suggesting that some shrewd insights lie beneath the surface, and that everyone else is only a fall guy. The scenes with father and sister are sometimes extremely amusing, but the primary distinctive feature of the film is that it gives the viewer the opportunity to see many of the old vaudeville acts in their pristine form, as Gracie the heiress opens her home to the out of work performers. Probably these were performers who appeared in vaudeville with Burns and Allen themselves.

This was not the only time that Gracie Allen played screwball sidekick to another than hubby George Burns! As in this Paramount she marvelously is the comedy relief to George Barbier, In COLLEGE SWING (Bob Hope's first Paramount) Gracie ABSOLUTELY has Burns forgotten as she plays her Scatter brained character against that of Edward Everett Horton!!! THE TEAMING IS SO GREAT & PERFECT in such a teaming that Burns is delegated to that of Horton's straight man assistant & You Almost Forget About Him! Gracie & Horton are such a tremendously perfect pairing that one even forgets Hope, tho Martha Raye's loud antics can't help but keep you knowing she's in the cast!

In this sort of sequel to MANY HAPPY RETURNS, retired millionaire George Barbier finds his daughter Betty Furness, is engaged to a gold-digger Rafael Alcayde. To stop this, he gives all his money to his other daughter, Gracie Allen, and goes down to the small rural town he was born in, to wrestle Harry Holman. Completely misunderstanding -- surprise! -- Miss Allentakes in every broken-down vaudevillian and his trained seal. Plus when Alcayde learns of what Barbier has done, he tells Gracie he loves her and she him. So she decides to put on a show using all this lack of talent.

It's a particularly crazy comedy in which Miss Allen is in charge, and is visually inventive. While Burns nd butler Andrew Tombes are discussing how to find an unused bathroom, a spoons player or troupe of acrobats might pass in foreground or background. Credit director Norman Z. McLeod not only for his experience in silent comedy, but his time directing the Marx Brothers.