Motherhood takes it on the chin in this fast-moving farce from Warner Bros. Studio standbys. Pat O'Brien and Joan Blondell star as a boxing manager and his ex-stripper girlfriend. When they spot a promising slugger (Wayne Morris) in Kokomo, IN, the only way they can get him to fight for them is by promising to help him find his long-lost mother. The kid is such a dim-bulb they convince him that Whistler's Mother is a portrait of his own mom, then pass off hard-drinking kleptomaniac May Robson as the real thing. Morris had just starred in Kid Galahad (1937), so playing a dumbed-down version of that character was easy for him, while O'Brien and Blondell were old hands at slinging one-liners and taking pratfalls. But it's Robson who steals the film as the double-dealing old harridan, a farcical variation on her Oscar®-nominated performance as Apple Annie in Lady for a Day (1933). The film also features an early appearance by Jane Wyman as Morris' love interest, who just happens to be the daughter of the judge who almost sent Robson up the river.

By Frank Miller