| Mother Carey's Chickens | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Rowland V. Lee |
| Produced by | Pandro S. Berman |
| Written by | S.K. Lauren Gertrude Purcell |
| Starring | Anne Shirley Ruby Keeler |
| Cinematography | J. Roy Hunt |
| Editing by | George Hively |
| Distributed by | RKO Radio Pictures |
| Release date(s) | July 29, 1938 |
| Running time | 82 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Mother Carey's Chickens is a 1938 drama film starring Anne Shirley and Ruby Keeler. The film was directed by Rowland V. Lee and based upon a 1917 play by Kate Douglas Wiggin and Rachel Crothers, which in turn was adapted from Wiggins' novel of the same title.
Originally Katharine Hepburn was assigned to the lead role. She refused, however, and left RKO in order to avoid having to appear in the film.
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Mr. Carey (Frank Morgan), a captain in the United States Navy, dies during the Spanish-American War. His wife Margaret, daughters Nancy and Kitty and sons Gilbert and Peter are left behind. They are now on their own with only Capt. Carey's pension for income. The family moves into a series of ever-smaller rented houses while Mrs. Carey works in a textile mill. When she is injured, they lease a broken down mansion for a year at a nominal fee, and invest the captain's small life insurance payment to fix it up into a boarding house. Both daughters fall in love, Kitty with a local teacher and Nancy with Tom Hamilton (Frank Albertson), the son of the absentee owner.
When the Hamiltons put the house up for sale, the family is given an eviction order by Tom Hamilton, a doctor who wants the money from the sale to study in Europe. However fate intervenes and Tom saves Peter from a serious illness, then falls in love with Nancy. The new owners, the Fullers, move in to force the family to vacate. The Careys and their beaus try to avoid being put out of their house by scaring off the Fullers.[1]
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