Too Busy to Work
Cast & Crew
Otto Brower
Jed Prouty
Spring Byington
Kenneth Howell
George Ernest
June Carlson
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
When John Jones becomes mayor of Maryville, he begins to neglect his drugstore and his family, and Granny Jones advises his wife Louise to give him a taste of his own medicine by demonstrating what would happen if she neglected her housekeeping. Louise decides to take Granny's advice when her old friend, thespian Madge Russell, visits and offers her the lead in a new play. As Louise embarks upon her new career, leaving the housekeeping chores in the hands of her oafish cousin Lolly, her husband is appointed head of a drive to raise $50,000 for a new hospital. John finds himself in double competition with rival druggist Wilbur Wentworth, who bids on the lease to John's store and plays the romantic lead to Louise's leading lady. As rehearsals proceed, escaped safecracker Cracker McGurk comes to town and is mistaken for the play's author and given a part in the production. He is eventually recognized by officer Gilligan and thrown in jail. As opening night draws near, the deadline to raise the hospital funds approaches, and John learns that his good friends on the fund-raising committee have split up the hospital contracts, guaranteeing fat profits for themselves. Furious, John threatens to return the money unless the bidding process is honest. Meanwhile, Lolly, in search of prop money for the play, takes the hospital funds and locks them in the safe on stage. When the money is discovered missing, the committee accuses John of embezzlement until Lolly admits to taking it. With only an hour left before the train delivering the funds to the state capitol is to depart, the safe becomes stuck, and the town is forced to ask McGurk to ply his skills. With the safe finally opened, John turns the money over to Wentworth to deliver and, having learned his lesson, pledges never to run for mayor again.
Director
Otto Brower
Cast
Jed Prouty
Spring Byington
Kenneth Howell
George Ernest
June Carlson
Florence Roberts
Billy Mahan
Joan Davis
Chick Chandler
Marjorie Gateson
Andrew Tombes
Marvin Stephens
Irving Bacon
Helen Ericson
Harold Goodwin
Hooper Atchley
George Watts
Chester Clute
Fred Kelsey
Sherry Hall
George Melford
Edith Hallor
Dave Morris
Eddie Dunn
Gladden James
Edwin Stanley
Wesley Giraud
Eddie Acuff
Paul Burns
Harry Strang
Jack Green
Sarah Edwards
Grace Goodall
Crew
Fred Allen
William H. Anderson
Jasper Blystone
Edward Cronjager
Richard Day
George Dudley
Robert Ellis
Eugene Grossman
Samuel Kaylin
Thomas Little
Helen Logan
Helen A. Myron
Stanley Rauh
John Stone
Sol M. Wurtzel
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The working title of this picture was The Little Theater. The above credits and plot summary were taken from a continuity included in the copyright records. Although the reviews, Screen Achievements Bulletin, copyright records and Call Bureau Cast Service lists credit the plays The Torchbearers and Your Uncle Dudley as providing a basis for this film, these plays are not credited in the Twentieth Century-Fox Produced Scripts Collection at the UCLA Theater Arts Library. For more information about the series, consult the Series Index and see entry for Every Saturday Night (above). In 1935, Fox produced Your Uncle Dudley, which was also based on the Lindsay and Robinson play .
