An affluent Long Island community is thrown into a panic: word is out that a maid is writing a "kitchen's-eye view" of her employers.
Marsha Hunt stars as Martha, the family maid who doesn't really mean to cause a big ruckus. Richard Carlson is the scientist son who unexpectedly returns home from studies abroad—and it's quickly obvious that he and Martha share a sensitive secret.
Carlson and Hunt are quite good—both give unassuming performances as characters who are just slightly offbeat.
Superb character actors in colorful roles fill out the rest of the cast: Marjorie Main is at her best as the boisterous cook who rounds up all the cooks and maids on the block for a strategy session. Virginia Weidler is fine as the young daughter who says, "Every now and then I get a feeling something's going on I don't know about." Spring Byington and Melville Cooper are the mildly eccentric mother and father. Allyn Joslyn is the sharp-witted publisher of the book-in-progress. And Barry Nelson is hilarious as the delivery boy who attempts to romance Martha (Main calls him a "pantry Casanova").
No single character dominates but the entire cast is colorful and clever; the witty script gives just about everyone something funny to say and contains just enough plot to offer a few twists: It's surprising, funny and sweet.
–Oh, and Margaret Hamilton, three years removed from Oz, has one hilarious line during the maids' and cooks' discussion of their employers: "You don't know how bad those witches can get once they get moving," she says.
