A reviewer is wrong, claiming the title is never said in the film. Dan Dailey(Jim Hefferan) says it when trying to impress a prospective tenant for their boarding house with the quality of the food............Based upon the 1944 play, which is based on the 1943 novel by Rosemary Taylor, it chronicles the first 20 years of the marriage of Jim and Emily(Celeste Holm) Hefferan, around 1900-20, beginning with a surrey, with a fringe on top, graduating to a presumed Model T. Jim is the ever optimistic financial scheme dreamer, with no starting cash, hence often has to resort to devious ways to finance his obsessions, becoming sort of a flim flam man. Emily is his long-suffering , but loyal, wife, who tries to keep the pair, and later family, solvent with her rooming house business. At film's end, we have to ask ourselves whether Jim's unique life has been a success or a failure, or somewhere between. Before I try to answer that question, I would like to explain my review title. If you remember your US history, this was a slogan by the 1928 Republican presidential campaign, which was also used by Huey Long, in his his 1932 bid for governor of Louisiana. Remembering that chicken was mostly served at special occasions from 1900-1930, mostly being raised in small flocks, and mostly for eggs, this slogan was meant to imply that if they won the election, they would bring greater prosperity to the nation than their opponent would. I'm saying that the title of the book, play, and film could be interpreted in the same way, but applied to Jim's financial schemes, as well as to Emely's culinary prowess.
Jim was good at seeing a business need in the fledgling city of turn-of-the century Tucson, AZ. But, he generally didn't have the financial resources nor the patience to see them through to profitability. Hence, he usually sold the fledgling business, to provide seed money for his next project. Often, he had to beg or extort money from Emily's business, or a friend or the bank. He even spearheaded the building of the Tucson hospital, by hook or crook. Some of his schemes eventually worked out for others. Others, like his last 'get rich' scheme : digging for copper ore, were abject failures for everyone(although that region of AZ does have some of the best copper mines in the US).
How many inventors of important technologies or creators of important works of art, died as relative or absolute paupers? How many important inventions were preceded by many failed experiments? How many new small businesses are ultimately financial failures?(most). I see Jim as being among such pioneers. Just, he was unfortunate to not be blessed with starting capital and in having a wanderlust personality. Emily knew Jim was like that when she married him, so why did she marry him? Perhaps she hoped that at least one of his schemes would bring them some wealth. Perhaps she intuitively knew that he needed someone like her to keep him from ending up on skid row. Or, maybe she just loved him, in spite of his faults. At least, their marriageable daughter, Rosemary(Collen Townsend) considered her father an important contributor to a number of local businesses, as well as spearheading the construction of the town hospital, where she was born, with Emily the very first patient! Expressing her feelings toward her father changes an apparent sad ending, with Jim leaving home in disgrace, into a provisionally happy ending.
A house with so many boarders is bound to include some interesting characters, and to generate some conflicts and romances. Perhaps the most pitiful is the young man Geoffrey Lawson(Alan Young), psychologically crippled by his fearful, overbearing, mother whom he lives with. As a result, he believes he has no talent for doing common things, including dancing(I don't know how he ever got through school?). Regardless, for some reason?, Rosemary shows some interest in him as a possible boyfriend, and Emely encourages this. Emely tries to teach him how to waltz, with some success. Unwisely, she pushes him to ask Rosemary to dance at a big event. Unfortunately, the band plays a fast-tempo number he has no idea how to dance to. Another young man : Harold, sees this and takes the opportunity to take Rosemary away from him. Later, Harold asks Rosemary to marry him, but she tentatively balks. Later, Harold and Geoffrey have quite a brawl over Rosemary. Surprisingly, Geoffrey eventually prevails, knocking Herald down the stairs, making him run away for good. Incredibly, based mostly on this one incident, Rosemary agrees to an engagement with Geoffrey! Poor Rosemary!
Unfortunely, beautiful Collen Townsend, who played Rosemary, rather soon afterward 'got religion', and gave up her fledgling Hollywood career, but not before another film staring Dan Dailey. Speaking of Dan, it's always fun to have Dan as a leading actor, even if he doesn't do any vaudevillian-styled singing and dancing, as he often did. Celeste was also good in her role.......... I can definitely recommend this film, if you like old times family dramas/ comedies. Judging by the sparseness of fairly recent reviews here, you probably won't see it on TV, nor YouTube. Unfortunately, the DVD is rather expensive, but worth it to me. Would be nice if it were streamed.
Jim was good at seeing a business need in the fledgling city of turn-of-the century Tucson, AZ. But, he generally didn't have the financial resources nor the patience to see them through to profitability. Hence, he usually sold the fledgling business, to provide seed money for his next project. Often, he had to beg or extort money from Emily's business, or a friend or the bank. He even spearheaded the building of the Tucson hospital, by hook or crook. Some of his schemes eventually worked out for others. Others, like his last 'get rich' scheme : digging for copper ore, were abject failures for everyone(although that region of AZ does have some of the best copper mines in the US).
How many inventors of important technologies or creators of important works of art, died as relative or absolute paupers? How many important inventions were preceded by many failed experiments? How many new small businesses are ultimately financial failures?(most). I see Jim as being among such pioneers. Just, he was unfortunate to not be blessed with starting capital and in having a wanderlust personality. Emily knew Jim was like that when she married him, so why did she marry him? Perhaps she hoped that at least one of his schemes would bring them some wealth. Perhaps she intuitively knew that he needed someone like her to keep him from ending up on skid row. Or, maybe she just loved him, in spite of his faults. At least, their marriageable daughter, Rosemary(Collen Townsend) considered her father an important contributor to a number of local businesses, as well as spearheading the construction of the town hospital, where she was born, with Emily the very first patient! Expressing her feelings toward her father changes an apparent sad ending, with Jim leaving home in disgrace, into a provisionally happy ending.
A house with so many boarders is bound to include some interesting characters, and to generate some conflicts and romances. Perhaps the most pitiful is the young man Geoffrey Lawson(Alan Young), psychologically crippled by his fearful, overbearing, mother whom he lives with. As a result, he believes he has no talent for doing common things, including dancing(I don't know how he ever got through school?). Regardless, for some reason?, Rosemary shows some interest in him as a possible boyfriend, and Emely encourages this. Emely tries to teach him how to waltz, with some success. Unwisely, she pushes him to ask Rosemary to dance at a big event. Unfortunately, the band plays a fast-tempo number he has no idea how to dance to. Another young man : Harold, sees this and takes the opportunity to take Rosemary away from him. Later, Harold asks Rosemary to marry him, but she tentatively balks. Later, Harold and Geoffrey have quite a brawl over Rosemary. Surprisingly, Geoffrey eventually prevails, knocking Herald down the stairs, making him run away for good. Incredibly, based mostly on this one incident, Rosemary agrees to an engagement with Geoffrey! Poor Rosemary!
Unfortunely, beautiful Collen Townsend, who played Rosemary, rather soon afterward 'got religion', and gave up her fledgling Hollywood career, but not before another film staring Dan Dailey. Speaking of Dan, it's always fun to have Dan as a leading actor, even if he doesn't do any vaudevillian-styled singing and dancing, as he often did. Celeste was also good in her role.......... I can definitely recommend this film, if you like old times family dramas/ comedies. Judging by the sparseness of fairly recent reviews here, you probably won't see it on TV, nor YouTube. Unfortunately, the DVD is rather expensive, but worth it to me. Would be nice if it were streamed.