MartinHafer Jane Budden (Myrna Loy) has decided to leave her farm and move to the big city in order to find a husband. Unlike some women, Jane is very open about wanting a successful husband and why she ends up marrying the far from successful Hiram Maxim (Dno Ameche) is perplexing. However, over time, this crackpot inventor actually turns out to be very successful. This film is about their life together and the family. Interestingly, unlike many other films of the era, this one is relatively uneventful--more a slice of life film instead of one with any great events or crazy happenings. Instead, it's just a nice little showcase for two actors away from their home studios (Loy with MGM and Ameche with 20th Century Fox) and doing a film for Universal. Nothing great, nothing bad about this one...just a nice story and nice acting.

mark.waltz In the mid-late 1800's, a young lady from a farm near Boston decides to move far away and get as far away from pigs as possible. Her destination? A city named Brooklyn. Her goal? To find a rich man, hopefully fall in love with him, and marry him. Her reality? Sorry, maa'm. Ain't gonna happen. Your destiny is to end up with somebody as nutty as you are and live a very unconventional life.She's Myrna Loy. He's Don Ameche. They share a buggy ride from the carriage station she has just arrived in. He rushes off the buggy to throw rise at some newlyweds he's never met before. Ironically, she is going to the same street he is, and he graciously offers to carry his bag. Also ironically, he happens to live right next door to her cousin, and she interrupts his cousin's wife's tea party where she explains her reasons for moving to the very exclusive Brooklyn neighborhood. Ameche's landlady (Clara Blandick) rushes back and warns him about the social-climbing Loy, so what does Ameche do? He pays a visit on Loy and tells her that if she intends to go after somebody just because they are rich, then he is not her man. Her reaction? Tossing the bouquet of flowers he brought her.Between wearing a curly wig he's just styled with his new invention (the curling iron) on the balcony for Loy to spot then practically setting Blandick's house on fire with the smoking invention, it is only a matter of time before Ameche and Loy fall in love. She becomes engaged to the prominent Richard Gaines only to find out that he intends to become a hog farmer. Watch as Loy rushes out to reveal her true feelings to Ameche then Gaines' confrontation of the two whom he finds kissing. Period comedy has never been as funny or irreverent, but when you've got comic legends like Ameche and Loy paired together for the only time, what else can you expect? Their marriage is an unconventional one too with an equally unconventional young son (Bobby Driscoll) who is due for a date with the switch when he plants a yarn ball with protruding knitting needles on a visitor's chair. Ameche and Driscoll pick out switches from the tree outside and Ameche strikes fear into the loving mother Loy as he sets to teach Driscoll a lesson which he'll never forget. Punishment with a true moral lesson which goes against "Spare the rod. Spoil the child" and will have you both laughing and possibly crying at the same time.Then there's the presence of eccentric artist Rhys Williams who is interrupted by every possible interruption as he prepares to paint the portrait of the annoyed Ameche. Pickle-pussed maid Renie Riano offers her two cents, then Driscoll comes in, and finally the family pooch. Poor Williams is on the verge of a nervous breakdown. This documents the episodic nature of the structure of this film, somewhat plot less, but never boring. Each segment provides a lesson as well as laughs, sort of a variation of "Life With Father" as told from the point of view of the couple as newly married. The film's last few minutes take more of a serious turn, but that too has a twist. This is totally enjoyable on every level, a nice obscure comedy about a real life inventor that doesn't profess to be anything close to accuracy, but as fiction, it is a ton of fun.

xerses13 ...in giving the 'Green Light' to this picture. As a mid-19th Century Family Comedy it succeeds in those respects. It Stars Don Ameche (Hiram Maxim) and Myrna Loy (Jane Budden), his 1st Wife, making a attractive and winning couple. The film is a polished piece, backed by a fine musical score by Hans J. Salter. Who showed he could do more then just provide background music for the Universal stable of Monsters.Basically 'Maxim' is shown as a 'absent minded professor' who with the push from his Wife becomes a successful Inventor. Though what he invented is barely touched upon. Other then some minor domestic issues the film comes across as a discount LIFE WITH FATHER (1947). Pleasing to watch (one time) and that is about it.The 'real' MAXIM was the inventor of many useful tools, his most noted one, the MAXIM MACHINE GUN. How did he come up with this? A friend suggested to make a real financial killing that he "...invent something that will enable these Europeans to cut each others throats with greater facility". In this he succeeded beyond his wildest dreams making a fortune, gaining a Knighthood and fulfilling his friends foresight as WWI would show.A pity the movie did not cover the latter part of his life. The Machine Gun, Amusement Rides, a 2nd Wife and charges of Bigamy would have made a more fascinating film.

RayDruian Based on Hiram Percy Maxim's memoir, 'A Genius in the Family,' this film attempts, rather poorly, to explore the comedic aspects of Maxim's relationship to his father, Hiram Steven Maxim. Taken by itself, it's a rather superficial film about the man who revolutionized the machine gun, by inventing the version that operates on the power of the bullets' expelled gases. Maxim's accomplishments are hardly mentioned, instead depending on the fictionalized relationships between his wife and son. The younger Maxim, by the way, founded the American Radio Relay League, the national organization of radio hams. While he he is famous to that particular fraternity, he is virtually unknown elsewhere, and even his father's fame is now largely forgotten.