Tish (1942) User Reviews (11)

Fun, convoluted comedy with soap opera elements.

[mark.waltz · 6/10 · 16 December 2010]

Marjorie Main gives a truly wonderful performance as a feisty church lady who is constantly filling her swear box with change by using malapropisms to cover the swear words she is thinking inside. She has set out to pair her beloved nephew whom she raised with the daughter of a deceased friend. But when plans start to fail, he ends up with the rather uppity daughter of her nemesis Guy Kibbee, and she finds herself in a predicament when she discovers that the young girl has left town and died after giving birth to a baby she assumes is illegitimate. She takes in the child whom she claims she has adopted but this leads to her being committed to an institution while the nephew and his wife take in the child.

This is a rather convoluted plot line, especially for what is essentially a comedy, but it works mainly because of the chemistry between Main and her two "Steel Magnolia" like pals Aline MacMahon and Zasu Pitts. Even her supposed rival Kibbee has an unexpressed admiration for Main, which she feels for him as well but is too set in her ways to admit it. There is a very funny opening sequence where Main attempts rollerskating on her way to church but ends up on her derrière, as well as a lengthy scene on a camping trip with her nephew, the young girl she wants him with, and her two pals. Susan Peters is the young Innocent girl, while Lee Bowman and Virginia Grey are the couple who end up together. The real highlight of this film is not the young couple, but Main (in a role patterned after many Marie Dressler parts), Pitts and MacMahon.

Three gals who deserved better

[mls4182 · 6/10 · 24 December 2021]

How a film with three hilarious ladies could miss the mark is beyond me. A few good lines but the plot is interspersed with serious romance and even a tragic subplot. The physical comedy situations don't work. They're just not funny.

A bitter disappointment for fans of these great comedienne.

A lot of fun

[richard-1787 · 7/10 · 6 October 2018]

The best thing about this movie is the three spinsters, played perfectly by the three leading ladies. They are all consummate actresses, not "just" comedians, and they know how to handle their often wonderful lines wonderfully. It's all very innocent fun, but really very clever at times.

The rest of the movie, even Guy Kibbe's character, is forgettable.

Definitely a movie to see when you need a pick-me-up.

Great character actors and gorgeous gals.

[b1b1b1c27 · 24 February 2003]

Okay, it's a little silly. But where else do you get to see three of the finest character actresses in one picture? Main, Pitts, and McMahon are all delightful if ill-served by the very uneven script. In addition, there is the adorable Susan Peters, who at 21 displays a mature talent. And of course, the always funny Guy Kibbee adds his particular brand of stodginess to the mix. It was just a bit after the Pearl Harbor attack, so a bit of overly patriotic war-cheerleading is understandable and excusable. What is not excusable is the maudlin twist in the otherwise comic (and often slapstick) hijinks. Still, all in all a picture worth watching if you like great character actors or gorgeous gals like Miss Peters and Miss Gray.

Big names in odd war-time film

[ksf-2 · 6/10 · 24 November 2010]

LOVE Marj Main (Ma Kettle and The Women)& Aline MacMahon...Aline STOLE the show, which ain't easy to do with M Main in the film... MacMahon should have won an award for this one, but the film itself has some problems... Lots of weird jumps forward in time, with time gaps & plot filled in by fast talking on the part of the 3 gal-pals. This film also dealt with some big issues for its time, with that naughty ol film production code in force at the time... it takes place during WW II, so that figures into the plot. There IS some sorrow, pain, and loss in this one, but it ends on KIND of a happy note, like any good WW II flick. Guy Kibbee is the ornery old cantankerous grandfatherly judge, who gets his come-uppance, as he usually did. Fun to watch, but keep those expectations in check. Some silly mis-understandings, similar to an episode of Three's Company. (But I do love anything with M Main or A. MacMahon.)

Lucy with two Ethels

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 9 March 2017]

Marjorie Main stars in this MGM B picture in the title role of Tish. As per usual it's one of those B films from MGM with their usual production values it has an A look about it. All but for the fact that none of MGM's big stars are in this.

She lives in a small town with her scapegrace of a nephew Lee Bowman and hangs out all day with her two generational pals, Aline McMahon and Zasu Pitts. When after a trip to Toronto she brings back the baby of the late Susan Peters who was sickly to begin with and who died in childbirth all kinds of talk of scandal ensues about the real parentage of the infant. Nobody's believing she's Marjorie's, especially not her nemesis town judge and town busybody Guy Kibbee.

The three women are the center of this film, it's like Lucy Ricardo with two Ethel Mertzes. There's also a nice little romantic quadrangle between Bowman, Peters, Richard Quine and Virginia Grey playing a big part of the plot.

This one is worth a look especially if you're a fan of any of the three women companions.

This comedy is a tragedy

[wmadavis · 4/10 · 4 July 2010]

It's nice to see the three great characters actresses, but they are given very little to work with. Marjorie Main's is the only developed character, and she seems miscast in it. Fine production values, to be sure, but this film is a mess from beginning to end. The script desperately needed many more re-writes, as you can't tell who's supposed to be in love with whom. People that you think are supposed to be good do cruel things, and then you're supposed to turn around and find them good again. Terribly tragic events are used as contrived plot devices, and passed over by the characters with little more than an "oh, too bad" by the characters. Then to compound the tragedy of this comedy is the back story: Susan Peters, so young and beautiful in this film married Richard Quine who played her love interest. She was paralyzed in a gun accident a few years later, and after trying to recover her career by working in a wheelchair, she fell into depression and decline and died. She had divorced Quine. He had a successful but largely forgotten career as a director, until he also fell into depression and committed suicide.

A Triumph For Three Actresses

[Ron Oliver · 10/10 · 9 July 2003]

Letitia ‘TISH' Carberry enjoys nothing more than controlling the lives & romances of all around her, aided and abetted by her two dearest friends - Lizzie Wilkins and Aggie Pilkington.

The popular characters from the stories by Mary Roberts Rinehart come alive in this funny, nostalgic (and nearly forgotten) film. Helping immeasurably in the movie's success is the casting of a trio of Hollywood's finest comedic character actresses. Bossy & down-to-earth, Marjorie Main tackles the title role and wrestles it into submission, her ever-present Swear Box ready to accept the coins she must deposit whenever she unlooses one of her colorful, G-rated oaths. As sensible Lizzie, Aline MacMahon brings a patrician respectability to her part, although that doesn't keep her from sitting on a rowboat's leak at a crucial moment. ZaSu Pitts becomes vague, fluttery Aggie, who still writes a hilarious memorial poem on the anniversary of her sweetheart's death.

Guy Kibbee is very droll as the judge whose life is made a misery by the feminine triumvirate. Among the young persons in whose lives they interfere are pretty Susan Peters & Virginia Grey. Movie mavens will recognize an uncredited Nora Cecil as one of the old ladies at the boarding house.

The film benefits from MGM's typically fine production values. The story becomes unexpectedly serious near the end, but by the closing moments hilarity reigns again as Tish once more starts to meddle.

This is a Dull production--and no one can argue with that!!

[planktonrules · 2/10 · 7 December 2010]

As I watched the credits, I noticed that this film was produced by Orville O. Dull--officially making this a Dull production! As to whether it was dull to watch is another question! Sadly, it turns out that the film isn't so much dull but just plain stupid and a waste of good talent.

Have you heard the old saying about filling a room full of monkeys with typewriters and eventually one of them will produce Shakespeare?! Well, we all know that isn't true....they will create the screenplay for "Tish"--a film so convoluted and bizarre that this can be the only explanation for its existence!!! The title character is played by Marjorie Main and her two friends are played by Aline MacMahon and Zasu Pitts. Now you'd think with these fine actresses, this film would be a lot of fun. Well, despite a few moments, the film is an awful and depressing mess. Let me explain. the three old spinsters all try to work behind the scenes to pull strings to create a nice romance. So far, so good. Then, Tish's niece runs off to get married in Canada after stealing from the church's organ fund. And, shortly after, her husband is killed in the war. Then, she dies in childbirth and the baby is then sent to live with Tish and her friends!!! What the heck?!?! Talk about contrived and, well, stupid! In addition to totally wasting these three fine supporting actresses, the film also manages to waste Guy Kibbee and Lee Bowman--proving that even MGM occasionally produced a truly awful film now and again.

One more see-it-to-believe-it

[jayson-4 · 9 March 2005]

Catch this oddity the next time TCM drags it out of the pit. This vehicle for the grand old warhorse Marjorie Main features some of the Golden Age's greatest character actors and the talented and beautiful (if ultimately tragic) Susan Peters. But the sub-sitcom setups, rotten writing, inferior direction and editing, and at least one perverse (if not sickening) plot turn make this an unintentionally creepy little "B" picture indeed.

"Tish" was no doubt a tryout for the dazzling Peters (who the same year would appear to far greater effect in "Random Harvest"), but given how short her film resume is, it's a shame that this thing has to feature so prominently on it.

If you need proof that MGM didn't turn out "Mutiny on the Bounty" and "Mrs. Miniver" twice a week, seek no more.

Sadly lacking

[technikov · 11 April 2014]

With three fabulous actresses as Zasu Pitts, Aline MacMahon, and Marjorie Main, I figured this would be a fine little movie. It was not. Blame falls on the writing for this film. But with these wonderful ladies, who were nothing short of great in anything they were ever in, something occurred to me. Let's say this movie had never been made, good writers were obtained, and Aline played the lead, supported by Zasu and Marjorie, as three lady sleuths. They assess the suspects, get into a bit of mischief, have some close calls and finally solve the case. There could have been a series of six movies made along these lines. Zasu did some of this with her 'Hildegarde Withers' films with James Gleason, and Aline did some of the same with Guy Kibbee (they were both quite good in 'While the Patient Slept'). I would even consider signing Kibbee as the main cop in those films. That would have been a six-pack of movies I could go for!