Safety in Numbers
Cast & Crew
Malcolm St. Clair
Jed Prouty
Shirley Deane
Spring Byington
Russell Gleason
Ken Howell
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
In Maryville, U.S.A., Lucy Jones learns that she has won a radio contest. She is to read her essay, "Why My Mother Is the Best Mother in the World," on the air, and her mother Louise is to say a few words. The Jones family goes to the radio station, and when Toni Stewart, the contest organizer's niece, yodels together with Roger Jones, Roger accidentally broadcasts their sounds over the air. The next day, Lucy goes for a ride with Tommy McGuire, the delivery boy at the Jones's drugstore, who has just acquired a new scooter. The scooter's sidecar detaches, and Lucy lands in a puddle of mud. John Jones, the head of the family, receives a visit from Dr. Lawrence Edmonds, President of Maryville Land and Water Corporation, who wants to sponsor a series of radio programs called "Family Forum," in which Louise will give advice on family matters, as a vehicle for selling mineral water from nearby Barton Springs. After Jones confirms by the awful taste of the water that it does contain minerals, he encourages the town to invest in the project, and Edmonds gives them five days to raise $100,000. Meanwhile, Toni and Jack have fallen in love, but Toni is due to leave for California in a few days to be married to a man of her mother's choosing. She and Jack decide to elope, and they send an anonymous letter to "Family Forum." Jack then asks Louise to read some of the letters she has received and selects his own. As she reads it, the family agrees that the young lovers in the letter should elope. The next day, Tommy and Lucy take her brother Bobby on a picnic to Barton Springs, where Bobby falls in. The three return with their clothes soaked, and Roger notices that the clothes do not smell. Suspicious, he goes to the spring and gets a sample straight from the stream. The deadline to raise the money has arrived, and the town has raised only $90,000. They give Edmonds the money and take the deed to Barton Springs as security, while they try to raise the rest. When Edmonds hears that Roger has obtained a sample from the spring, he orders his men to leave town. As Toni and Jack are on the way to get married, they hear about the fraud on the radio and return to help. To entrap the criminals, Louise goes on the air and falsely assures her listeners that the water has been tested and is indeed mineral water of the highest quality. When the crooks hear this, they return to claim their fortune. They go to Jones's drugstore to retrieve the deed, and Jones, who doesn't understand his wife's scheme, tells them that the water is bad. The crooks then lock Jones, Tommy and Herbert Thompson, Jones's son-in-law, in a storeroom and flee. They are chased by the police and, after they are released, are chased again by Jones, Tommy and Herbert on Tommy's scooter. The sidecar with Jones in it detaches, and he careens into a bale of hay. The crooks' car overturns, and after they are apprehended, the town's money is returned.
Director
Malcolm St. Clair
Cast
Jed Prouty
Shirley Deane
Spring Byington
Russell Gleason
Ken Howell
George Ernest
June Carlson
Florence Roberts
Billy Mahan
Marvin Stephens
Iva Stewart
Helen Freeman
Henry Kolker
Paul Mcvey
Bruce Warren
Edward Earle
Wilfred Lucas
Harrison Greene
Ray Brown
Dave Morris
Ruth Clifford
Robert Lowery
Fred Kelsey
Floyd Criswell
Frank Meredith
Hal K. Dawson
Carroll Nye
Frances Morris
Edwin August
Billy Griffith
Syd Saylor
Cy Kendall
Crew
William H. Anderson
Robert Chapin
Charles [g.] Clarke
Gordon Cooper
George P. Costello
Karen De Wolf
Zena George
Bernard Herzbrun
Joseph Hoffman
Samuel Kaylin
Boris Leven
Thomas Little
Dorothy Manney
Helen A. Myron
Harry Reynolds
John Stone
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The plot summary was based on a screen continuity in the Twentieth Century-Fox Produced Scripts Collection at the UCLA Theater Arts Library. A Variety news item from November 1937 noted that the studio had purchased a story by Eve Golden and Geyne Schenk for this film, but a news item from January 1938 states that the film was to be based on a story by Dorothy Manney and Zena George, who received credit in all the reviews and in the copyright descriptions. As Golden and Schenk's work is not included in the Produced Scripts Collection, it is doubtful that their work was used for this film. This was the first of the Jones Family series that was not produced by Max Golden. Joan Valerie is listed as a cast member in Hollywood Reporter production charts, but her participation in the final film has not been confirmed. For more information about the series, please consult the Series Index and see the entry above for Every Saturday Night.
