Having been seen mostly in modern seductive clothing, getting a gander at Veronica Lake in period costumes is quite a switch from those Alan Ladd film noirs that she had become well known for. Cast along with softer looking Joan Caulfield as two New York City con-artists on the run from being nearly caught in their latest get rich quick scheme, the two sisters stop off in a small town near the Canadian border where they hide their loot that somehow ends up getting distributed to the needy folks much to their horror and the bitterness of town matron Beulah Bondi.
A struggling widow prays for a cow and finds a cow; A farmer about to be dispossessed finds money under his door. A young boy who wants to learn how to play the trombone is given the money for the instrument. Lake and Caulfield at first are furious when they find out that the old rascal who found them hiding in his farmhouse (Barry Fitzgerald) found their stash of cash and knowing their secret decided to use it like Robin Hood to help the poor. Bondi puts up $15,000 of her own money to help the town on the promise that Lake and Caulfield will do the same. But Lake has ideas of her own and that means finding Bondi's hidden strong box and skipping town with double of what they had before.
Certainly the premise is outlandish and absurd, but it is presented in such an entertaining way with a load of popular character performers-William Demarest, "I Love Lucy's" Kathryn Card, Chill Wills among them. Future "Superman" George Reeves is the town hero who becomes enamored of both sisters and causes Caulfield to go soft. Bondi's mean-spirited matron is one of many embittered characters she's played, but she allows a few moments of sweetness and light to creep in her character, reminding me of the kindly mothers she's played more often than the meaner ones. However, it's the sprightly Fitzgerald who steals the film with that sly twinkle in his eye that wins over your compassion. So even by a stretch of the imagination, this is a winning comedy with a huge heart that shows atonement of the two sisters who learn more in a short period of time about humanity than an entire lifetime in the big city.
A struggling widow prays for a cow and finds a cow; A farmer about to be dispossessed finds money under his door. A young boy who wants to learn how to play the trombone is given the money for the instrument. Lake and Caulfield at first are furious when they find out that the old rascal who found them hiding in his farmhouse (Barry Fitzgerald) found their stash of cash and knowing their secret decided to use it like Robin Hood to help the poor. Bondi puts up $15,000 of her own money to help the town on the promise that Lake and Caulfield will do the same. But Lake has ideas of her own and that means finding Bondi's hidden strong box and skipping town with double of what they had before.
Certainly the premise is outlandish and absurd, but it is presented in such an entertaining way with a load of popular character performers-William Demarest, "I Love Lucy's" Kathryn Card, Chill Wills among them. Future "Superman" George Reeves is the town hero who becomes enamored of both sisters and causes Caulfield to go soft. Bondi's mean-spirited matron is one of many embittered characters she's played, but she allows a few moments of sweetness and light to creep in her character, reminding me of the kindly mothers she's played more often than the meaner ones. However, it's the sprightly Fitzgerald who steals the film with that sly twinkle in his eye that wins over your compassion. So even by a stretch of the imagination, this is a winning comedy with a huge heart that shows atonement of the two sisters who learn more in a short period of time about humanity than an entire lifetime in the big city.