My Kingdom for a Cook (1943) - Turner Classic Movies

Brief Synopsis

An English author must search for a new cook when he moves to rural Massachusetts.

Cast & Crew

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Richard Wallace

Charles Coburn

Marguerite Chapman

Bill Carter

Isobel Elsom

Edward Gargan

Film Details

Also Known As

Without Notice

Genre

Comedy

Release Date

Aug 31, 1943

Premiere Information

not available

Production Company

Columbia Pictures Corp.

Distribution Company

Columbia Pictures Corp.

Country

United States

Technical Specs

Duration

1h 23m

Film Length

7,479ft

Synopsis

Rudyard Morley, the renowned caustic-witted English author, journeys to the United States on a goodwill lecture tour. Morley, a gourmet, becomes distraught when his cook is unable to accompany him. Traveling with his secretary-daughter Pamela, Morley arrives in New York and boards a train for the small New England town of Colcord. On the train, Pamela becomes intrigued by Mike Scott, a young lieutenant, but the young man is affronted by the cantankerous Morley. Lucille Scott, Mike's mother and the grand dame of Colcord's cultural activities, arranges a royal welcome at the station for Morley. When Morley snubs the welcoming party, he alienates Mrs. Scott and the town's leading citizenry and embarrasses Pamela. Upon discovering that Mrs. Scott's cook Hattie is a virtuoso in the kitchen, however, Morley convinces Pamela to finagle a dinner invitation to the Scotts'. After dinner, Morley steals Hattie away from the Scotts by telling her that she is wasting her great talents catering to people who don't appreciate her artistry. The theft of Hattie precipitates a battle between Mrs. Scott and Morley which is covered by the press. Realizing that his mother's attacks against Morley are based upon the loss of her cook, Mike lures Hattie back to the kitchen. Tired of her employer's hysteria, Mrs. Scott's long-suffering secretary Agnes Willoughby informs Morley that he can get Hattie back by offering her good-for-nothing husband Duke steady employment. Determined to win his battle with Mrs. Scott and snub the American populace in general, Morley plans to make a vitriolic speech on the occasion of the 250th anniversary of the founding of Colcord. Pamela, who has fallen in love with Mike, decides to prevent her father from speaking by staging a fake elopement to Canada with Mike, which she knows will bring Morley chasing after them. Meanwhile, Morley, who has gone to the Thornton farm where Hattie's husband is helping to harvest the crops, gets involved in a fight and is arrested for disturbing the peace. In Canada, Mike and Pamela hear of Morley's arrest and return to Colcord, where Pamela informs her father that she intends to marry Mike in earnest. After managing to get bailed out of jail just before the Colcord anniversary proceedings start, Morley ascends the stage. Just as the populace is about to boo him off the platform, Morley surprises everyone by apologizing for being an old fool and declaring that he has come to admire the American people. Feted by all of Colcord and invited by the President to Washington, Morley is given a royal send-off at the station, and with him, departs Agnes, the secretary, whom he has stolen with the same tactics he used on Hattie the cook.

Director

Richard Wallace

Cast

Charles Coburn

Marguerite Chapman

Bill Carter

Isobel Elsom

Edward Gargan

Mary Wickes

Agnes Willoughby

Almira Sessions

Eddy Waller

Ralph Peters

"Pretty Boy" Peterson

Ivan Simpson

Professor Harlow

Betty Brewer

Melville Cooper

Angus Sheffield

Kathleen Howard

Charles Halton

Olvier Bradbury

Andrew Tombes

Norma Varden

William Austin

Constance Worth

Reginald Sheffield

English reporter

Sterling Campbell

British wing commander

Ethel May Halls

Jessie Arnold

Mantan Moreland

Eddie Kane

Man in washroom

Earl Dewey

Man in washroom

John Tyrrell

Man in washroom

Dick Elliott

Man in pullman car

Fern Emmett

Screaming woman

George Chandler

Romaine Callender

Earl Hodgins

Wade Boteler

Shirley Patterson

Stanley Brown

Craig Woods

Lewis Wilson

Harry Anderson

Donald Kerr

Harry Hayden

Gino Corrado

Sarah Edwards

Woman in employment office

Minerva Urecal

Woman in employment office

Gladys Blake

Ruth Warren

Constance Purdy

Virginia Sale

John Elliott

Ilene Brewer

Darwood Kaye

Western Union boy

Virginia Brissac

Ruth Robinson

Barbara Brown

Lillian Lawrence

Blanche Rose

Eric Mayne

Patsy Moran

George Mckay

Eddie Hall

Irving Bacon

Igor Dolgoruki

Bob Mckenzie

Richard Talmadge

Ed Dearing

Motor policeman

Ralph Dunn

Motor policeman

Odette Myrtil

Hal Price

Joel Friedkin

Tommy Mack

Crew

William R. Anderson

Dialogue Director

Lionel Banks

Earl Bellamy

Assistant Director

Ed Bernds

Harold Goldman

Lili Hatvany

Jack Henley

Joseph Hoffman

Edward Jewell

Associate (Art Direction)

John Leipold

Otto Meyer

William Mull

Assistant Director

Franz F. Planer

Director of Photography

Andrew Solt

Andrew Solt

Stuart Stevenson

M. W. Stoloff

Frank [a.] Tuttle

P. J. Wolfson

Film Details

Also Known As

Without Notice

Genre

Comedy

Release Date

Aug 31, 1943

Premiere Information

not available

Production Company

Columbia Pictures Corp.

Distribution Company

Columbia Pictures Corp.

Country

United States

Technical Specs

Duration

1h 23m

Film Length

7,479ft

Articles

My Kingdom for a Cook

October 23, 2013

He was nearly sixty before he made his first feature film but Georgia-born character actor Charles Coburn swiftly made up for lost time. With his trademark monocle (he really needed it!) and omnipresent cigar, Coburn was a natural to fill the wingtips of sundry crusty old codgers, invariably moneyed, inescapably sardonic, but not infrequently revealed in the final reel to possess a heart of gold. After proving his mettle in supporting roles in such hits as The Lady Eve (1941) with Henry Fonda and Barbara Stanwyck, Heaven Can Wait (1943) with Gene Tierney and Don Ameche, and The More the Merrier (1943) with Jean Arthur and Joel McCrea, Coburn was entrusted by Columbia Pictures to carry a star vehicle of his own. Shot under the working title Without Notice, Richard Wallace's My Kingdom for a Cook (1943) showcases Coburn (in Monty Woolley whiskers) as a persnickety English author and self-professed gourmand who rekindles British-American hostilities when he visits a small New England town and attempts to steal away the personal chef of a noted Daughter of the Revolution. Marguerite Chapman, Mary Wickes, Almira Sessions, and Mantan Moreland also turn up in this charming comedy of manners, whose protagonist was patterned after novelist-playwright George Bernard Shaw but who perhaps owes an unspoken debt to The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942).

By Richard Harland Smith

My Kingdom For A Cook

My Kingdom for a Cook

He was nearly sixty before he made his first feature film but Georgia-born character actor Charles Coburn swiftly made up for lost time. With his trademark monocle (he really needed it!) and omnipresent cigar, Coburn was a natural to fill the wingtips of sundry crusty old codgers, invariably moneyed, inescapably sardonic, but not infrequently revealed in the final reel to possess a heart of gold. After proving his mettle in supporting roles in such hits as The Lady Eve (1941) with Henry Fonda and Barbara Stanwyck, Heaven Can Wait (1943) with Gene Tierney and Don Ameche, and The More the Merrier (1943) with Jean Arthur and Joel McCrea, Coburn was entrusted by Columbia Pictures to carry a star vehicle of his own. Shot under the working title Without Notice, Richard Wallace's My Kingdom for a Cook (1943) showcases Coburn (in Monty Woolley whiskers) as a persnickety English author and self-professed gourmand who rekindles British-American hostilities when he visits a small New England town and attempts to steal away the personal chef of a noted Daughter of the Revolution. Marguerite Chapman, Mary Wickes, Almira Sessions, and Mantan Moreland also turn up in this charming comedy of manners, whose protagonist was patterned after novelist-playwright George Bernard Shaw but who perhaps owes an unspoken debt to The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942). By Richard Harland Smith

Quotes

Trivia

Notes

The working title of this film was Without Notice. According to a Hollywood Reporter news item, Charles Coburn was cast in the picture because of his success in The More the Merrier.

Miscellaneous Notes

Released in United States 1943

Released in United States 1943

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