Claudette Colbert

On their wedding night, Bob reveals to Betty that he has purchased an abandoned chicken farm. Betty struggles to adapt to their new rural lifestyle, especially when a glamorous neighbor seems to set her eyes on Bob. On their wedding night Bob informs his new bride Betty that he has bought a chicken farm. An abandoned chicken farm, to be exact, which is obvious when the two move in. Betty endures Bob's enthusiasm for the rural life, rustic inconveniences, and battling nature, but her patience is severely tested when glamorous neighbor Harriet Putnam seems to set her sights on Bob. —Ron Kerrigan <mvg@whidbey.com> Wanting to start a new life after coming back from the war and getting married, city slicker Bob buys a farmstead with plans primarily to raise chicken to sell the eggs as a business. Buying the farm is something he doesn't tell his equally city slicker bride, Betty, before doing so. In the farm, an eager Bob doesn't see what Betty sees, which is an old, dilapidated property that requires much work to make it livable. While trying to make a go of the farm, Bob and Betty meet their odd assortment of neighbors, including the respectively housework challenged and lazy Ma and Pa Kettle, the oldest of their fifteen children, Tom, a bright and industrious young man, who dreams of going to college; the rhyme-talking Billy Reed, who is willing to sell Betty anything; busybody Birdie Hicks; the relatively silent Geoduck and Corkscrew; elderly Emily and her difficult to see husband Albert; and Harriet Putnam, the elegant owner of the Bella Vista Farm, the largest and most businesslike of the farms in the area. Betty quickly realizes that she is not well suited to rural living. But what Betty is most concerned about regarding her new environment is what seems to be a romantic interest that Harriet shows in Bob. —Huggo

This story begins with the wedding of Gerry (Claudette Colbert) and Tom Jeffers (Joel McCrea), and the wedding follows with the caption, "And they lived happily ever after... or did they?" Time then flashes forward about four years to the Jeffers apartment where the Wienie King (Robert Dudley) is touring the Jeffers apartment as a likely rental because the Jeffers aren't able to make their bills. While the Wienie King and his wife tour the apartment, an embarrassed Gerry hides in closets and the bathroom, ducking away from touring eyes. The Wienie King happens upon Gerry hiding in the bathtub behind a shower curtain and takes an immediate liking to her so much that he decides not to take her apartment and gives Gerry $700 to pay her bills. Meantime, Tom is meeting with a hopeful investor to discuss his idea of building an airport that stretches over the city. The investor doesn't seem very keen on Tom's idea. When Tom gets home and finds out that Gerry has taken money from a stranger, he's upset. Gerry calms him down, but then suggests that they get a divorce because she feels as a single woman she can get him the money he needs to build his airport. Gerry takes Tom out to dinner with the last 14 dollars they have after she finished paying the bills that day, and they both get pretty drunk. When they get home, Gerry is still discussing divorce, but discussions stop as Tom helps Gerry remove her dress. The next morning, Gerry packs her suitcase and writes Tom a good-bye letter. She tries to pin the letter to the blanket but accidentally pokes Tom waking him up. Tom chases Gerry to the streets, but a penniless Gerry manages to get away in a taxi and thanks to the kindness of strangers, in this case the members of the Ale and Quail Club, she manages to get a ticket and a private car on a train to Palm Beach. The Ale and Quail Club get a bit drunk and decide to shoot up their train car, so Gerry sneaks away for some peace. She climbs into a berth which happens to be the berth above the berth of millionaire John D.Hackensacker III (Rudy Vallee) who comes to Gerry's rescue with loads of clothes, jewelry, etc., after Gerry loses her belongings due to the fact that the Ale and Quail Club train car has been disconnected from the train and abandoned. Gerry and John decide to abandon the train themselves and take John's yacht to Palm Beach. As this is happening Tom meets the Wienie King who has decided to take a different apartment in the building. The Wienie King gives Tom money to catch a plane to Palm Beach to stop Gerry from getting a divorce. When Tom meets the train, he finds out that Gerry has dumped the train for a yacht. Tom then waits for Gerry at the dock. Tom then meets John and John's sister the Princess Centimillia (Mary Astor) who takes an immediately liking to Tom. Gerry introduces Tom to everyone as her brother, and a slightly disagreeable Tom goes along with this plan solely to get time to convince Gerry to come to her senses. Gerry talks John into investing in Tom's airport. The Princess wants to marry Tom and John wants to marry Gerry. In the end, Gerry and Tom realize that they love each other and can't divorce. They both confess to the Princess and John. John decides to invest in Tom's airport anyway even though he loves Gerry. John then says, "If only you had a sister." Gerry says, "I do. A twin sister." As they express surprise over this revelation, Tom further reveals that he also has a twin brother. The movie then ends with Gerry and Tom standing side by side at the wedding of their twin siblings to the respective Hackensacker siblings where the movie ends as it begins, "And they lived happily ever after... or did they?"

After learning her multi-millionaire fiancé has already been married seven times, the daughter of a penniless marquis decides to tame him. US multi-millionaire Michael Barndon marries his eight wife, Nicole, the daughter of a broken French Marquis. But she doesn't want to be only a number in the row of his ex-wives and starts her own strategy to "tame" him. —Stephan Eichenberg <eichenbe@fak-cbg.tu-muenchen.de>

A struggling widow and her daughter take in a Black housekeeper and her fair-skinned daughter; the two women start a successful business but face familial, identity, and racial issues along the way. Bea Pullman and her daughter Jessie have had a hard time making ends meet since Bea's husband died. Help comes in the form of Delilah Johnson, who agrees to work as Bea's housekeeper in exchange for a room for herself and her daughter Peola. Bea comes up with a plan to market Delilah's pancake recipe. The two soon become wealthy, and their friendship deepens through the years, but their relationships with their daughters become strained. Ashamed of her mother, Peola seeks a new life by passing for white. Bea's love for her daughter is tested when she and Jessie fall for the same man. —<dbubbeo@cmp.com> Following the death of her husband who she admits she never truly loved in a romantic sense, Bea Pullman is having a difficult time with life trying to make ends meet by maintaining his maple syrup business while raising their daughter, Jessie Pullman. The child care side of the equation is addressed when she meets a black woman named Delilah Johnson, who is looking for a housekeeping job primarily for room and board which includes for her light skinned daughter, Peola Johnson. While Jessie and Peola become fast friends, Bea sees in Delilah more than just a housekeeper, but a friend and business partner when she learns that Delilah makes the world's best pancakes, which triggers the idea that they should open a pancake restaurant and sell syrup as a side business. That successful business morphs, based on a suggestion by a down and out customer named Elmer Smith who becomes their partner, into an even more successful venture selling the pancake flour mix for home use. This business makes both women richer than they could have ever imagined, although all Delilah wants is to continue to live with the Pullmans to look after them and Peola. As the girls grow into young womanhood and go away to college - Peola specifically to one catering to blacks in the South - issues arise which threaten to tear each family apart largely as the girls now have the power to do what they will. For the Pullmans, the issue surrounds what may be the first true loves each has experienced in her life, Bea's with Elmer's friend, ichthyologist Stephen Archer. And for the Johnsons, the issue is Peola taking action to run away from her life as a black woman, wanting to pass as white. —Huggo

An investigative reporter romances a suspected smuggler's daughter. Reporter Joe Miller is sure that fisherman Eli Kirk smuggles illegal Chinese immigrants into the country, but can't obtain enough evidence to satisfy his editor. Chance plays into his hands in the lovely form of Kirk's daughter, Julie, whom he catches swimming in the nude and pumps for information. But she's fiercely loyal to her dad, and may be too attractive for Joe's own good. Racy pre-Code sexual situations. —Rod Crawford <puffinus@u.washington.edu>