Leon Erroll and Zasu Pitts are a nouveau riche midwestern couple on their way to Paris, with daughter Mitzi Green and nephew Jackie Searl. They are counselled by a street sweeper as to the best hotel in New York, and Lilyan Tashman tries to fleece Erroll out of $50,000. Erroll dances a drunken Apache, and Mack Swain steals his scenes, or perhaps his beard does. Co-directors Normans McCleod and Taurog have paced this one a tad too slow for my taste. Joseph Mankiewicz does the screenplay from a book by Donald Ogden Stewart.
4 Reviews
Misadventures and Mischief
view_and_review28 August 2022
This was a dumb movie about the misadventures of a yokel named Finley P. Haddock (Leon Errol) and the mischief of his daughter Mildred (Mitzi Green). "Finn and Hattie" was a long slapstick sitcom about a stumbling bumbling businessman named Finley who fancied himself a wrestler but always found himself tossed on his back.
His naivety and money made him the mark of two hustlers: Henry Collins (Regis Toomey) and the 'Princess' (Lilyan Tashman). While they worked on him, his wife (Zasu Pitts) fretted and stressed over him because of the awful marital advice she accepted from a four-time divorcee.
While Finn was getting played and Mrs. Haddock was fretting, Mildred was running amok with her cousin Sidney (Jackie Searl) while trying to save her parents' marriage.
This movie would've been OK as a half hour sitcom, but it was painful to watch as a seventy-five minute movie.
Free on rarefilmm.
His naivety and money made him the mark of two hustlers: Henry Collins (Regis Toomey) and the 'Princess' (Lilyan Tashman). While they worked on him, his wife (Zasu Pitts) fretted and stressed over him because of the awful marital advice she accepted from a four-time divorcee.
While Finn was getting played and Mrs. Haddock was fretting, Mildred was running amok with her cousin Sidney (Jackie Searl) while trying to save her parents' marriage.
This movie would've been OK as a half hour sitcom, but it was painful to watch as a seventy-five minute movie.
Free on rarefilmm.
Two Marvellous Moppets!!!
kidboots1 March 2010
Warning: Spoilers
Mitzi Green, at 10 was a vaudeville veteran who specialised in impersonations of famous stars and Jackie Searl had been a popular radio personality since the age of 3. They both excelled in playing movie brats but when they were teamed in "Finn and Hattie" and later "Newly Rich" (which was a hilarious movie about child stars) the results were fantastic. Both films gave them top comedians to work with - "Newly Rich" had Edna May Oliver and Louise Fazenda as two stage mothers, "Finn and Hattie" has the superb Leon Errol and Zasu Pitts with the wonderful Lilyan Tashman as a scheming "Princess"!!
The Haddocks are going on a European vacation and from their reception at the station, where the whole town goes to see them off, it is clear who wears the pants in the family - it's their daughter Mildred (Mitzi Green). Her parents often proclaim she is a genius - but she is just smarter than them, which wouldn't be too hard!!! On the train, Finn (Leon Errol) meets shyster Harry (Regis Toomey) who sizes Finn up as a sucker and quickly wires his partner Bessie, aka "The Princess" to make Finn's acquaintance and take him for everything he has. (Finn has pulled out a gold watch and of course Harry thinks he is wealthy!!)
They all meet on the boat - the Haddocks are joined by Sidney (Jackie Searl) Mildred's obnoxious little cousin. Mildred promises her father faithfully to look after Sidney - and she does, she does!!! From making him jump overboard as human bait to sending him down the coal scuttle, Mildred and Sidney show that movie brats were much more entertaining to watch than simpering little goody goodys. Mildred realises that the "Princess" is a con artist but after helping her dad avoid disaster with an incriminating love letter on the boat, they run into her in Paris. Meanwhile Hattie has befriended a thrice divorced woman who convinces her that Finn is like all men - a beast!!! The "Princess" is out to fleece Finn of all his money so Mildred and Sidney have to act fast.
This is a hilarious film, even funnier than "Newly Rich" - if that's possible. The kids have plenty of peppery lines - "You're awful nice Pop but you don't know what it's all about" Mildred tells her father as she gets him out of another scrape. "You have to leave the room - little boys shouldn't know such things" Hattie tells Sidney when he presents her with the salvaged love letter, he replies "but little boys want to"!! Leon Errol was a popular comedian of stage and screen in the 20s and 30s, whose trademark was a wobbly walk that he used in drunk routines (he uses it in this movie). He made many shorts, usually portraying a husband getting mixed up with a pretty girl and having to endure his wife's wrath - similar to the plot in this film!! There are lots of people to watch in this movie, including Harry Beresford as an upper crust street sweeper who advises the Haddocks on which is the "ritziest" restaurant in town. Directed by Norman Taurog who had a wonderful affinity with child actors - "Skippy", "Sooky", "Newly Rich" and "Huckleberry Finn" and written by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, who later went on to write "A Letter to Three Wives" (1949) and "All About Eve" (1950) - "Finn and Hattie" is a wonderful way to spend a rainy afternoon.
Highly, Highly Recommend.
The Haddocks are going on a European vacation and from their reception at the station, where the whole town goes to see them off, it is clear who wears the pants in the family - it's their daughter Mildred (Mitzi Green). Her parents often proclaim she is a genius - but she is just smarter than them, which wouldn't be too hard!!! On the train, Finn (Leon Errol) meets shyster Harry (Regis Toomey) who sizes Finn up as a sucker and quickly wires his partner Bessie, aka "The Princess" to make Finn's acquaintance and take him for everything he has. (Finn has pulled out a gold watch and of course Harry thinks he is wealthy!!)
They all meet on the boat - the Haddocks are joined by Sidney (Jackie Searl) Mildred's obnoxious little cousin. Mildred promises her father faithfully to look after Sidney - and she does, she does!!! From making him jump overboard as human bait to sending him down the coal scuttle, Mildred and Sidney show that movie brats were much more entertaining to watch than simpering little goody goodys. Mildred realises that the "Princess" is a con artist but after helping her dad avoid disaster with an incriminating love letter on the boat, they run into her in Paris. Meanwhile Hattie has befriended a thrice divorced woman who convinces her that Finn is like all men - a beast!!! The "Princess" is out to fleece Finn of all his money so Mildred and Sidney have to act fast.
This is a hilarious film, even funnier than "Newly Rich" - if that's possible. The kids have plenty of peppery lines - "You're awful nice Pop but you don't know what it's all about" Mildred tells her father as she gets him out of another scrape. "You have to leave the room - little boys shouldn't know such things" Hattie tells Sidney when he presents her with the salvaged love letter, he replies "but little boys want to"!! Leon Errol was a popular comedian of stage and screen in the 20s and 30s, whose trademark was a wobbly walk that he used in drunk routines (he uses it in this movie). He made many shorts, usually portraying a husband getting mixed up with a pretty girl and having to endure his wife's wrath - similar to the plot in this film!! There are lots of people to watch in this movie, including Harry Beresford as an upper crust street sweeper who advises the Haddocks on which is the "ritziest" restaurant in town. Directed by Norman Taurog who had a wonderful affinity with child actors - "Skippy", "Sooky", "Newly Rich" and "Huckleberry Finn" and written by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, who later went on to write "A Letter to Three Wives" (1949) and "All About Eve" (1950) - "Finn and Hattie" is a wonderful way to spend a rainy afternoon.
Highly, Highly Recommend.
Two little rascals at sea, accompanied by two big rascals.
mark.waltz20 February 2017
Warning: Spoilers
That's not Mary Anne Jackson, the tongue sticker outer of the early talkie entries in the "Our Gang" series; That's Mitzi Green, an even funnier child actress who had a bit of a film career in the early 30's, doing imitations of the big stars and really being a bigger scene stealer than the yet to be discovered Shirley Temple. Mitzi is actually closer to Jane Withers in her energy and prankster playing, and in this film, she is absolutely hysterical. She's the overly smart daughter of rubber legged Leon Errol and befuddled Zasu Pitts, upstaging her father at a public speaking engagement, and later causing all sorts of mayhem on a transatlantic ship along with equally bratty cousin Jackie Searle.
This is more a series of anecdotes rather than a plot line, although one amusing plot twist does come up with Errol flirting with ogling princess Lilyan Tashman, and observed by the two kiddies. Green plays many pranks on cousin Searle, pushing him overboard, hoisting him up to the peep deck of the ship and wrestling with him over a letter from the princess. As big of talents that Errol and Pitts are, it's the children (especially Green) who get the attention here, reminding me of W.C. Fields' claim never to act opposite digs or children. Green is a great instigator, with the impish Searle a more than adequate foil.
This is more a series of anecdotes rather than a plot line, although one amusing plot twist does come up with Errol flirting with ogling princess Lilyan Tashman, and observed by the two kiddies. Green plays many pranks on cousin Searle, pushing him overboard, hoisting him up to the peep deck of the ship and wrestling with him over a letter from the princess. As big of talents that Errol and Pitts are, it's the children (especially Green) who get the attention here, reminding me of W.C. Fields' claim never to act opposite digs or children. Green is a great instigator, with the impish Searle a more than adequate foil.
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