Prune-faced Edna May Oliver gets top billing over young beauty Maureen O'Sullivan in this entertaining, if standard, MGM screwball comedy. Actually, O'Sullivan plays the titled character, but because of her popularity, Ms. Oliver rose to top billing, playing O'Sullivan's spikey aunt. Maureen's a spinster librarian who inherits a bequest from a distant uncle, making her the new owner of a New York newspaper. She brings the New York hating aunt with her and in order to learn the newspaper business from the ground up, takes a job as a cub reporter from the resentful editor (Walter Pidgeon) who softens up to her in spite of his pig-headed sexism in regards to having female reporters on his staff. Of course, she screws up on the big stories, while in the meantime, Auntie Edna gets into all sorts of scrapes with the typical New Yorker, from hotel staff members to taxi drivers. This leads to reporter Maureen breaking the big story, getting into trouble with some wacky bad guys and how she gets out of the scrape without Pidgeon's macho help.
This is a basically second-rate comedy which is entertaining based mainly upon Edna May Oliver's presence in it. Maureen O'Sullivan is lovely enough and has a great personality, but when compared to other comic females of the time, she lacks major leading lady presence. Pidgeon, basically a second-string William Powell prior to his pairing with Greer Garson, lacks real chemistry with O'Sullivan, so this falls into the hands of Edna May who is no shrinking violet here. She even becomes a bit comically violent, taking on the hotel clerks and taxi drivers and even cops with feisty vigor that makes her truly endearing, showing once again that you can be just as determined and strong willed being from a small community as you are living in a big metropolis. No wonder she ended up with the billing-it is her act and she steals every moment unapologetically. One wink, sniff or evil eye from Edna Mae, and you know what she's thinking even without speaking.
This is a basically second-rate comedy which is entertaining based mainly upon Edna May Oliver's presence in it. Maureen O'Sullivan is lovely enough and has a great personality, but when compared to other comic females of the time, she lacks major leading lady presence. Pidgeon, basically a second-string William Powell prior to his pairing with Greer Garson, lacks real chemistry with O'Sullivan, so this falls into the hands of Edna May who is no shrinking violet here. She even becomes a bit comically violent, taking on the hotel clerks and taxi drivers and even cops with feisty vigor that makes her truly endearing, showing once again that you can be just as determined and strong willed being from a small community as you are living in a big metropolis. No wonder she ended up with the billing-it is her act and she steals every moment unapologetically. One wink, sniff or evil eye from Edna Mae, and you know what she's thinking even without speaking.