Mama Steps Out

Mama Steps Out (1937)

** (out of 4)

Alice Brady plays a wife from Indiana who drags her husband (Guy Kibbee) and daughter (Betty Furness) to Europe so that they can catch up on what she believes is proper society. To her horror the daughter falls in love with an American musician (Dennis Morgan) but he isn't quite as affectionate to her. MAMA STEPS OUT is pretty much a comedy version of DODSWORTH, although it's certainly not as good as that Oscar-winning film. I think there are a few nice things scattered among the 63-minute running time but in the end there's just not enough laughs to make it a complete winner. What makes the film mildly amusing are the performances, which are all extremely good. Both Brady and Kibbee give it their all and I think they make for a wonderful couple. The two of them are amusing as they play off one another and I especially liked the way Kibbee played his typical brain dead character with a little twist. There's a sequence where the wife wants him to keep going to a bar to meet the "proper" type of people and he gives a little speech about becoming a drunk and the actor delivers it perfectly. I also thought both Furness and Morgan were good in their parts but there's no question that the entire love story just really drags this thing down as it's pretty silly and predictable. Gene Lockhart plays a brief supporting role and is fine too. The screenplay starts off with some nice dialogue and situations but it quickly falls apart when the story goes from this mid-West family crashing Europe to a predictable love story. Fans of the cast will still want to check it out but others will want to skip it.