The trailers for this 1937 comedy promoted radio singer Stanley Morner's transition to the movies, and the man who would become better-known as Dennis Morgan acquits himself well in the second film for which he received billing. But the real stars are Guy Kibbee and Alice Brady as a pair of innocents abroad. Although adapted from John Alexander Kirkland's 1930 Broadway play Ada Beats the Drum, the film seems a comic take on Dodsworth (1936), a film released a year earlier. As in Dodsworth, the action is motivated by a socially ambitious Midwestern wife (Brady), who drags her husband off on a European tour in search of culture. In Mama Steps Out, however, the story is played for laughs, with Brady trying to prevent daughter Betty Furness from getting involved with American singer Morner while Kibbee looks on in consternation. For Brady, the part is almost a reprise of her daffy grande dame in My Man Godfrey (1936) and she brings the same dithery charm to the role, even as she's tempted to cheat on her husband with an unscrupulous artist (Ivan Lebedeff). Anita Loos did the adaptation, which accounts for the film's surprisingly sharp lines.

By Frank Miller