WAC Double Features: Big Hearted Herbert/Merry Frinks

Talented, sad-eyed Aline MacMahon excelled in maternal and sisterly roles, giving them comedic grace or soulful earnestness as the situation required. Both qualities are showcased in this twinbill of MacMahon starrers. Blustery and domineering pop (Guy Kibbee) gets his comeuppance and goes from narrow-minded patriarch to Big Hearted Herbert, thanks to his loving wife (MacMahon). In The Merry Frinks, the comic tale of a whack-a-doodle family that has elements similar to the later You Can't Take It with You, Mama (MacMahon) and her selfless love hold her eccentric household together. But the glue of her resolve may dissolve when worldly Uncle Newt (Kibbee) wills her $500,000 if she'll leave the crazy-maker family.

• comedy