Happiness C.O.D.

Donald Meek is a hard-working widower with three children who take him and the finances for granted. He has taken out a mortgage on the family home with his brother-in-law, Edward Maxwell, but cannot meet the latest payment. Maxwell offers him a proposition: approve sub-standard concrete for the new hospital Meek is supervising the construction of, and he'll get back the mortgage. Otherwise Maxwell will foreclose.

Meek is well cast as the kindly little man, as is Maude Eburne as his sister who keeps house for him. Snobby architect William Bakewell, clothes-mad Irene Ware (who is carrying on a harmless relationship with Malcolm McGregor, whose wife has been in a sanitarium for years), and gun-happy college student Frank Coghlan Jr. complete the family. There's also Polly Ann Young, who is Meek's secretary and thinks she has an understanding with Bakewell.

The script isn't much of a surprise, and you go in thinking it will all be settled satisfactorily. The performers, Meek aside, are rather broad in the characterizations, and director. Charles Lamont takes advantage of this for humorous purposes. Miss Eburne, as usual, walks away with the best role. It's pleasant, harmless fun with a bit of a moral to it, which is just about right for a well made Poverty Row picture.