Thanks for the memories!

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Here's the premise: A sweet old lady, indignant that local merchants are victims of an extortion ring, gets together her own mob to fight fire with fire. And how does she get them? Well, the district attorney, who knows and respects her, orders several criminals to be good boys and do what she says. And how does she deploy them? Well, she orders one to go into a shop and beat up the extortionist. And what happens? It's HER thug who gets carried out on a stretcher (he's ok almost at once)! Hilarious! Fantasies and fairy tales may have magic elements, but they have to be grounded in reality. How likely is it that the DA would do this? Or that the extortionist would not do the thug permanent damage? Or use a knife or gun? Damon Runyon's stories were called fairy tales of Broadway, but in them gangsters do use guns, and their victims don't get up once they're down. This movie is offensively patronising in its assumption that its viewers will laugh at anything and never think about what they're watching. Lee Bowman is, as usual, charming, and the young Ida Lupino is beautiful, though she looks even sulkier than in her later, tough-girl roles. It's easy to see why and to sympathise, but that lovely, sensitive actress Fay Bainter fares worse, buried under a ton of rubber and makeup and stuck in this insulting sharp-tongued but sweet, doddery but clever little old lady role.

Ida Lupino is one of my favorite actresses. I'd watch her in anything. That's how I happened to watch this moronic comic gangster movie.Ida's mother-in-law to-be is the title character. She's a wealthy woman who sets out to outfox the protection racket that's hitting on businesses she frequents.Lupino has a reasonably good role. Of course she is wasted but she looks OK and isn't put through anything embarrassing.Fay Bainter, on the other hand -- what a crime! This lovely looking, gentle woman is trashed in the title role. I will grant that she appears to be having fun with it.But Bainter had the warmest eyes of any actress in movies I can think of. She gave many superb character performances and is marvelous as the title character in the unduly maligned "Mother Carey's Chickens." (She is Mother Carey, not a chicken.) Here she is done up to look like May Robson. Robson was also a delightful actress but a very different type.The whole thing is truly painful. If you're a die-hard Lupino fan and you want to see her entire oeuvre, watch it. If not, do yourself a favor and don't.

I watched this film on TCM and mostly wanted to view it because it featured a 21 year-old Ida Lupino, an actress who I adore. The movie tries to be funny, and the old lady who this film is mostly about is as cute as a button, but I think that the film tries too hard to be funny instead of simply being naturally funny. But Ida Lupino is not to blame for any problems with the film -- the writers are! She has always been a powerhouse actress and once she took on being a director, as always, she gave it her all! So watch this film if you are looking for something light-hearted and harmless fun. It's nice watching this elderly woman take on the mob in her own way and bringing them to their knees!

There's only so much a person can take of watching Ida Lupino. She escaped me as an actress in the 30's and 40's only to reinvent herself as a director in the 50's and 60's. I think that's where she belongs: behind the camera.