Nice assembly of supporting actors--McMahon, Kibbee, Jenkins, Darro, Herbert, Huber awful family--very demanding and selfish lot Jenkins a commie?! Lays it on TOO thick in general, lacks subtlety--could have been better
"The Merry Frinks" is a very frustrating film to watch. The story idea is great and the movie is chock full of wonderful bit actors from the Warner Brothers' lot. But, the writer took a great idea and completely ruined it--and the director didn't help either!
The Frinks are an awful lot. Each of the children, Grandma and Father are all selfish jerk-faces. Holding the family together is Mom (Aline MacMahon)--who puts up with all their obnoxious behaviors and is quite the enabler. However, through the course of the film, each of the family members makes Mom miserable again and again. However, just after she's had enough and is a miserable, broken woman, a lawyer shows up and announces that Ma has inherited $500,000 (a HUGE sum in the 1930s)...on the condition that she abandon her family! She naturally agrees...but she is pretty miserable leading a life of leisure. And, not surprisingly, the family falls to pieces without her.
The problem with the film is that the family is completely unbelievable. They overdo the awfulness so much that it never seems the least bit plausible and the film comes off much worse than it should have. The director also should have done something about this--but it all comes off as a great idea wasted due to ham-fisted writing and directing. I would love to see a remake of this one...one that makes the family semi-plausible and the ending possible. As it is, this was just a frustrating mess of a film.
