User Reviews

A whole group of familiar character players really put over this comedy about a small town mayor standing up to the public opinion in his town which is hell bent on investing the town's money in a summer resort being proposed by one of its former citizens. Fred Stone is the put upon mayor who is acting in the best tradition of Jimmy Stewart in Mr. Smith Goes To Washington.

Proposing the resort is Berton Churchill who has returned to the small town with his 'secretary' Paul Guilfoyle and wants to put in a summer resort. He's prosperous all right, Churchill and Guilfoyle have been putting over this and many other confidence rackets all over the country. Churchill is really superb in the part, he's like a descendant of Gatewood the banker from Stagecoach. He and Guilfoyle got the town drooling at the prospect of Quick Money.

Stone smells something fishy but he's up against public opinion. Even his wife Dorothy Vaughan is for Churchill. Fortunately daughter Dorothy Moore sides with her father and she's dating a budding Carl Bernstein in Gordon Jones. Jones and Stone's son Sherwood Bailey and the wonders he does with his chemistry set come in mighty handy.

There's a chase scene in the end that is hilarious. The wholesome values of common sense in small town America as personified by Fred Stone triumph in the end. As it always did in 1937. Stone and Churchill as a kind of yin and yang of good and evil really do a fine job in leading a great group of character players in this fine B feature from RKO.

Don't miss this if broadcast, it's a real sleeper.

Berton Churchill plays Buford Smythe, a man who has returned to his old home town after being gone for decades. He appears to be a successful pillar of society but it's all a front. Instead, he and his 'friends' are con-men bent on fleecing everyone in town. The only one who sees through this is the mayor...and soon folks in town grow to hate the mayor since he keeps speaking up against the big construction project proposed by Smythe.

While the film was enjoyable, it really suffered because it was obvious Smythe was a shyster. In fact, it was so obvious that you can only assume that the entire town was peopled by folks with serious brain disorders. This is a huge problem for me, as a plot requiring the viewer to turn off their sense of disbelief usually makes the film a hard sell. Additionally, seeing the mayor so hated and reviled so quickly seemed pretty hard to believe...as well as folks NOT looking into Smythe or his scheme to see if it was legitimate. All in all, an interesting idea with many logical flaws...too many to make it a must-see film. Instead, I'd put it in the time-passer category.

A great collection of silliness, good fun and a great treat to watch.

Minus the the entirely inappropriate use of a man's stuttering as a basis of "humour".

Stars Berton Churchill and Fred Stone. When bigshot Bluford Smythe comes back to his home town, they welcome him home. At first. Then they find out his secret - that he wants to build a huge vacation resort, using the town funds. But the town isn't agreed on what should be done with that money; in fact, Jonas, the current major is completely against it. It gets silly... the local townies and their kids try every trick in the book to get around the mayor, but then more information comes out. Kind of much ado about nothing. It's a short B film from RKO. Done in sixty minutes. Thank goodness. Too bad they didn't do more with the amazing jack carson; this was one of his earlier, credited roles. Directed by Ed Killy. It's a yawn.

This was probably very corny in its day but today it seems fresh and charming.

My only complaint is with the stuttering character, which is an unpalatable stereotype.

Otherwise, it is a low-keyed but charming tale of two con men who prey on the gullibility of small-town denizens and the upright mayor -- and his ingenious young son -- who stands up against them,

Most of the major characters are on the older side but not condescended to. The comedy begins broadly, with the Rooster Club, but is overall very gentle.