Chicken Wagon Family
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Herbert I. Leeds
Jane Withers
Leo Carrillo
Marjorie Weaver
Spring Byington
Kane Richmond
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
In the back roads of the South, the Fippanys travel in their mule-drawn wagon, trading wares for produce. While Jean Paul Batiste Fippany and his younger daughter Addie enjoy life on the road, his wife Josephine and older daughter Cecile dream of living in the city, and Josephine has saved $217 to make that dream a reality. While she and Cecile are at the movies, Addie finds her mother's purse with the money and a picture of Henri Fippany inside. Jean Paul then takes the money and loses it at poker. When Josephine discovers that the purse is missing, Addie starts to tell where she found it, but realizing that her father took the money, she sides with her mother and sister, and the family makes the journey to New York City. Unprepared for city life, the Fippanys are forced to spend their first rainy evening in New York parked on the street. Addie goes into Joe's Cafe where the proprietor, Mrs. Buzzi, compliments her jacket. When Mrs. Buzzi briefly leaves the cafe, Addie decides to leave the jacket in trade for coffee and doughnuts. As she is about to leave, however, policeman Matt Hibbard arrives and orders her to put her jacket back on. Thinking she has stolen the food, Matt traces Addie to the wagon and finds the cold and wet Fippanys, minus the hiding Addie. Knowing of a nearby empty fire station, he has the family made "caretakers" until the building is auctioned off. Matt is instantly infatuated with Cecile, who also feels the attraction, much to Addie's chagrin. Finally finding Addie, Matt takes her back to Mrs. Buzzi, where they learn the truth after discovering Addie's "I.O.U." Nearby, at Honest Henri's Furniture Store, Henri Fippany opens his store just as a family next door is being evicted. Addie helps the family out by selling some of their furniture to passersby. When Addie accidentally sells Henri some of his own furniture, the relatives meet, and Henri tells her how her father stole his fiancée and lost their business in a poker game, leaving him penniless in Boloxi, Mississippi. Despite his hatred for Jean Paul, Henri, still enamored with Josephine, furnishes the fire house. When Jean Paul, unable to find work, tries to make the family go back on the road, Addie tells the family about Jean Paul taking the money. Josephine leaves, forcing Jean Paul to sell his prized mules at auction to pay back her money. Addie takes Henri to the auction, convincing him to buy the mules for Josephine, but realizing he has been taken a second time, Henri leaves. Matt arrives with the auction money and a note from Jean Paul telling the family he is leaving. Addie searches New York for her father and finally finds him at a junk yard. The two come up with the idea of buying bathtubs at two dollars each, then selling them for twenty dollars. To buy the tubs, Jean Paul forges Henri's name on a check, and as the auction of the fire house begins, Henri arrives with the police, demanding the family's arrest. Addie sells bathtubs while the auctioneer sells the fire house, and in the confusion, Addie gets Henri to buy the fire house for $12,000. At dinner that night, the whole family gathers, celebrating the $3,400 they made selling bathtubs, the furniture store's new warehouse, and the new partnership of Fippany, Fippany and Fippany.
Director
Herbert I. Leeds
Cast
Jane Withers
Leo Carrillo
Marjorie Weaver
Spring Byington
Kane Richmond
Hobart Cavanaugh
Hamilton Macfadden
Inez Palange
Bob Mcclung
Sam Mcdaniel
Russ Powell
Matt Mchugh
Charles Flickinger
Gloria Roy
Adrian Morris
Doris Lloyd
Cliff Clark
Arthur Rankin
Hooper Atchley
Phillip Hurlic
Etta Mcdaniel
Claire Dubrey
William Royle
Abe Dinovitch
George Humbert
Wade Boteler
Syd Saylor
Edward Keane
Ivan Miller
William Pawley
Eddie Dunn
Fred Kelsey
Crew
Harry Akst
Fred Allen
William H. Anderson
Sidney Clare
Edward Cronjager
Richard Day
Bernard Freericks
Albert Hogsett
Samuel Kaylin
Thomas Little
Helen A. Myron
Viola Brothers Shore
Saul Wurtzel
Sol M. Wurtzel
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
According to a Twentieth Century-Fox press release, this film was planned originally for Will Rogers and Jane Withers, but production was shelved upon Rogers' death in 1935. Hollywood Reporter reported that producer Edward Kaufman left the Sol Wurtzel unit at Twentieth Century-Fox over a difference of opinion concerning the production of this film. The Variety review states that the song "The Daughter of Mademoiselle" was first used in the Gypsy Rose Lee film Battle of Broadway. Location filming was done at the Rindage Ranch in Malibu, CA. Press releases also report that Twentieth Century-Fox's "East Side" set was first used on this film. The Variety review lists the film's running time as 81 minutes, but this length is probably an error. Fox Film Corp. had previously filmed Benefield's novel in 1926 as The Dixie Merchant, starring J. Farrell MacDonald and John Barry, and directed by Frank Borzage. (See AFI Catalog of Feature Films, 1921-30; F2.1370 for more information on that title.)
