Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch (1934 film)

Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch
Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch
	box front of VHS tape version from Goodtimes Video
Directed by	Norman Taurog
Screenplay by	William Slavens McNutt; Jane Storm
Based on	Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch; by Alice Hegan Rice ; play by Anne Crawford Flexner
Produced by	Douglas MacLean
Starring	Pauline Lord; W. C. Fields; ZaSu Pitts
Cinematography	Charles Lang
Edited by	Hugh Bennett
Music by	John Leipold
Production; company	Paramount Pictures
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date	October 19, 1934 (United States);
Running time	80 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch is a 1934 American comedy drama film directed by Norman Taurog. It is based on the 1904 Broadway play by Anne Crawford Flexner,^[1] which was taken from the novel of the same name by Alice Hegan Rice. The film stars Broadway stage actress Pauline Lord, ZaSu Pitts and W. C. Fields.

The 1934 version is the third film adaptation of the novel and play. The first film version was released in 1914, starring Blanche Chapman. The second version was released in 1919 and stars Mary Carr, while the fourth version was released in 1942 and stars Fay Bainter.^[2] The book was also adapted into a radio series that aired from 1935 to 1938.^[3]

Plot[edit]

In 1901, Mrs. Wiggs and her children are facing eviction, left destitute when Mr. Wiggs departed many years ago to search for gold in the Klondike. The family owns the shack, but it has a mortgage of $25 and the evil lender is threatening them. Mrs. Wiggs is a laundress who cannot save money because of her charity toward others, often animals. Her oldest son James has worked hard all his life but now is seriously ill with tuberculosis. The little girls are all named after continents: Europena, Asia and Australia. The second-oldest boy Billy finds a spavined and dying horse that he brings home. The family nurses the horse back to reasonable health, naming it Cuba. Neighbor Tabitha Hazy seeks a husband and begins a subscription to "The Matrimonial Guide", a type of dating service.

Alice, a wealthy girl volunteer social worker, brings the family a feast of a Thanksgiving dinner. Her fiancé Mr. Bob, the town newspaper editor, takes Jimmy to a hospital. Billy makes enough money to take the family to a vaudeville variety show, and Mrs. Wiggs describes it all to Jimmy as he dies. She places an advertisement in national newspapers directed to her husband and saying that Jimmy is dead and that Mr. Wiggs must come home.

Tabitha has found a man whom she likes, but she fears he will not like her because she cannot cook. Mrs. Wiggs conspires with her to serve an exquisite dinner. When the man learns the truth, he refuses to marry her. In the midst of the household confusion, Mr. Wiggs arrives and sits quietly in a corner until he is noticed. He is secretly given enough money by Mr. Bob to pay the mortgage.

Cast[edit]

Pauline Lord as Mrs. Wiggs
W.C. Fields as Mr. C. Ellsworth Stubbins
ZaSu Pitts as Miss Tabitha Hazy
Evelyn Venable as Lucy Olcott
Kent Taylor as Bob Redding
Charles B. Middleton as Mr. Bagby
Donald Meek as Mr. Hiram Wiggs
Jimmy Butler as Billy Wiggs
George Breakston as Jimmy Wiggs
Edith Fellows as Australia Wiggs
Virginia Weidler as Europena Wiggs
Carmencita Johnson as Asia Wiggs
George Reed as Julius
Mildred Gover as Priscilla
Arthur Housman as Dick Harris
Walter Walker as Dr. Barton
Sam Flint as Railroad Agent Jenkins
James Robinson as Mose - Newspaper Office Boy
Edward Tamblyn as Usher
Al Shaw as half of vaudeville team
Sam Lee as other half of vaudeville team (Shaw and Lee were a vaudeville team)
Del Henderson as House Manage
George Pearce as Minister
Lillian Elliott as Mrs. Bagby

Reception[edit]

The film was one of Paramount's greatest hits of the year, although it was less successful than the studio originally hoped.^[4]

In a contemporary review for The New York Times, critic Andre Sennwald wrote: "The cynics who fled down the side streets upon being informed that Hollywood had taken up Mrs. Wiggs may now come back. Norman Taurog and his assistants have wrestled a surprising sum of merriment out of the tearful minor classic which your little sister wagged her pigtails over while you were deep in the perilous histories of Nick Carter. ... All in all, 'Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch' has been bullied into a genuinely amusing carnival for this disrespectful year of grace."^[5]

References[edit]

^ "MRS. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch – Broadway Play – Original | IBDB".
^ Hall, Wade, ed. (2005). The Kentucky Anthology: Two Hundred Years of Writing in the Bluegrass State. The University Press of Kentucky. p. 177. ISBN 0-813-12376-3.
^ Dunning, John (1998). On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio (Revised ed.). New York, NY: Oxford University Press. p. 462. ISBN 978-0-19-507678-3. Retrieved 2019-12-18.
^ Churchill, Douglas W. The Year in Hollywood: 1934 May Be Remembered as the Beginning of the Sweetness-and-Light Era (gate locked); New York Times [New York, N.Y] 30 Dec 1934: X5. Retrieved December 16, 2013.
^ Sennwald, Andre (1934-10-29). "The Screen: A Delightful Photoplay Based on 'Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch,' at the Paramount". The New York Times. p. 14.

External links[edit]

[1] "MRS. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch – Broadway Play – Original | IBDB".

[2] Hall, Wade, ed. (2005). The Kentucky Anthology: Two Hundred Years of Writing in the Bluegrass State. The University Press of Kentucky. p. 177. ISBN 0-813-12376-3.

[Dunning-3] Dunning, John (1998). On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio (Revised ed.). New York, NY: Oxford University Press. p. 462. ISBN 978-0-19-507678-3. Retrieved 2019-12-18.

[4] Churchill, Douglas W. The Year in Hollywood: 1934 May Be Remembered as the Beginning of the Sweetness-and-Light Era (gate locked); New York Times [New York, N.Y] 30 Dec 1934: X5. Retrieved December 16, 2013.

[5] Sennwald, Andre (1934-10-29). "The Screen: A Delightful Photoplay Based on 'Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch,' at the Paramount". The New York Times. p. 14.

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