Too Many Parents *** (1936, Frances Farmer, Lester Matthews, Porter Hall, Henry Travers) – Classic Movie Review 7241

Frances Farmer (19 September 1913 – 1 August 1970) made her film debut in Too Many Parents (1936). Alas, she was destined to make only 15 films, and is now more famous for her tragic story than her movies.

Director Robert F McGowan’s 1936 comedy drama Too Many Parents is written by Virginia Van Upp and Doris Malloy from a story by Jesse Lynch Williams and George Templeton. As well as Frances Farmer who plays Sally Colman, the film stars Lester Matthews as Mark Stewart, Porter Hall as Mrs Saunders, Henry Travers as kindly janitor Wilkins, Billy Lee as Billy Miller, George Ernest as Phillip Stewart and Sherwood Bailey as Clarence Talbot Jr. Paramount Pictures released it on 30 March 1936.

Although the 23-year-old Farmer stars in her first film under her seven-year contract with Paramount, it is not really her film, or really about her. It is a story of military schoolboys, sent to military academy by the kind of parents and guardians who can’t be bothered to look after them. One of them, lonely Philip Stewart (George Ernest), writes letters to himself that he thinks his father, Mr Mark Stewart (Lester Matthews), should be writing. Philip attempts suicide when his hoax is discovered.

Director McGowan left the Our Gang series of shorts he as making for the Hal Roach Studios and went to Paramount where he did Too Many Parents with many of the past and present cast of Our Gang, including Sherwood Bailey, George Ernest, Billy Lee, Jerry Tucker and Carl Switzer.

Too Many Parents also features Douglas Scott as Morton Downing, Colin Tapley as Miller, Buster Phelps as Clinton Meadows, Howard C Hickman as Colonel Colman, Sylvia Breamer as Malloy, Doris Lloyd as Mrs Downing, Lois Kent as Morton’s Sister, Jonathan Hale as Judge, Carl Switzer as Kid Singer, Anne Grey as Miss Allison, Henry Roquemore as Belcher and Cal Tjader as Alfred.

It runs 73 minutes, is distributed by Paramount Pictures, is shot by Karl Struss, produced by A M Botsford and scored by Gerard Carbonara and Tom Satterfield. It is edited by future director Edward Dmytryk.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7241

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