Class consciousness haunted films made in Hollywood during the Great Depression, resulting in such enduring classics as RKO Radio Pictures' Alice Adams (1935), Columbia Pictures' Holiday (1938), Universal's My Man Godfrey (1936), and this modest effort from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. As if gearing up for his later role as the draggle-tail mesmerist Professor Marvel in Metro's The Wizard of Oz (1939), Frank Morgan headlines Beg Borrow or Steal as veteran conman Ingraham Steward, who assuages his guilt over having abandoned his wife Agatha (Janet Beecher) and daughter Joyce (Florence Rice) many years earlier by wiring them small amounts of money earned from his various schemes and scams in the South of France. Begging off an invitation to return stateside to attend Joyce's impending wedding, Ingraham makes a show of regret that he cannot host the engagement party in his chateau - only to have his wife and daughter change their plans to take him up on his generous offer. Scrambling to find an untenanted mansion in which to stage his deception, Ingraham makes a deal with the affable caretaker (John Beal) of a vacationing marquis, while calling upon his disreputable colleagues to help complete the illusion. Based on the Saturday Evening Post story "A Matter of Pride" (which was the film's working title), Beg Borrow or Steal was directed by Austrian expatriate William Thiele, whose next film, The Ghost Comes Home, reunited Morgan with his Wizard of Oz costar Billie Burke.

By Richard Harland Smith