Miss Polly (1941)

In the very old-fashioned small town of Midville, there hasn't been a marriage in the town in over two years and the young people are slowly leaving the town. The main reason for this is Mrs. Minerva Snodgrass, the strict and assertive leader of the town's Purity League, who created numerous restrictions in the town – also to keep the girls and boys apart. Mrs. Snodgrass' next-door neighbor is Miss Panadora Polly, a friendly and tolerant old maid, who lives together with her handyman (and catastrophic hobby inventor) Slim Wilkins and her housekeeper and companion Patsy.

Miss Polly tries to shelter the young romance between Minerva's daughter Barbara and her boyfriend Eddie. However, Eddie is frustrated that Barbara is still under the influence of her mother and doesn't want to leave her, so Eddie wants to leave the town on his own. In order to make Barbara more courageous in her love to Eddie, Miss Polly looks for a mysterious liquour in her cellar that once made her shy sister marry a man. Miss Polly tries the drink and it indeeed works, she starts to flirt with the young grocery boy Elmer and buys the sexiest and most expensive dress in town.

In her new dress, Miss Polly visits the town meeting held by the Mayor and Mrs. Snodgrass, who wants to establish new rules and has most of the townfolk under her control. But Miss Polly, courageous under the influence of the romance liquor, starts to disagree and wants to give more freedom to the young people in town. Polly remembers the elderly and middle-aged meeting members of the "sins" they did during their youth and slowly brings them on her side. Minerva Snodgrass states that she was always morally right during her life in town, but Miss Polly remembers that Minerva had an affair with a marine during a vacation in 1911. Mrs. Snodgrass collapses and since there is no water around, Slim and Patsy give her the romantic liquor to drink to come to herself. Not only does Mrs. Snodgrass now agree to the marriage between Barbara and Eddie, she also gets a crush on Slim and chases after him.

Cast

ZaSu Pitts as Miss Pandora Polly
Slim Summerville as Slim Wilkins
Kathleen Howard as Mrs. Minerva Snodgrass
Brenda Forbes as Patsy
Elyse Knox as Barbara Snodgrass
Richard Clayton as Eddie
Dink Trout as Old Postman Wilbur Boggs
William Newell as New Postman Hubert
Ferris Taylor as Mayor Walsh
Mickey Daniels as Elmer, the Grocery Boy
Fern Emmett as Mrs. Frisbee
Sarah Edwards as Angie Turner
Virginia Sale as Orsina Wiggins
Walter Baldwin as Lem Wiggins
Vera Lewis as Elvira Pennywinkle
Jim Farley as Jim Pennywinkle
George Pembroke as Town Constable
Syd Saylor as Drug Store Owner

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