Every Saturday Night (1936) User Reviews (2)

The First In The Series Doesn't Have The Characters Well Conceived Yet

[boblipton · 5/10 · 7 February 2024]

In the first of the seventeen Jones Family movies, father Jed Prouty learns that being a father requires more than lecturing, and the youngsters learn that family is the most important thing.

I was surprised to discover this came out in 1936. I thought this 20th Century-Fox series was a reaction to MGM's Andy Hardy series, but it predates it. James Tinling does what he can with the movie, but while Spring Byington and Florence Roberts inhabit the roles of the mother and grandmother of the family, Prouty's role requires him to blow hot or cold as the state of the plot requires, so he never really seems to be the father of the assorted children. I also feel the script is rather old-fashioned. A great change was taking place with the realization that adolescence was an actual phase of human development, and the handling is rather clunky.

Even so, it's clear enough in retrospect there was a demand for this sort of movie, with even Paramount joining the market with the Henry Aldrich movies. And the writers and players at 20th Century-Fox would figure out how to make this series work.

They came before the Hardy's but were quickly forgotten.

[mark.waltz · 5/10 · 19 August 2020]

Of the hundreds of character actors busy in the 1930s, one of the most forgotten is Jed Prouty. Here he's Mr. Evers (the Jones name came later on), yet there's no doubt that he's the same character that would follow up in the other 11 movies of this series at 20th Century Fox. Spring Byington, who originated the role of Mrs. Hardy a year later in a family affair, plays Prouty's wife, and really doesn't get much to do outside of worried about her husband and try to intervene when he gets irritated with their large group of children. Prouty's mother, Florence Roberts, really gets more to do, whether being the only adult to really offer sensible advice or get a late night cup of coffee, and she steals the film.

The film itself is your typical family comedy drama, with a group of kids of different ages having various problems and not one of them really interesting enough to dominate the hour. It's only in the last real when one of them is in a car accident that there's really any conflict. One of the younger Sons loans out money from his allowance to older members of the family and charges them at exorbitant interest.

Halfway through, there's a musical number at a nightclub that's ironically sounds a bit like 42nd Street even though it is in. References to movie stars from other Studios and even Charlie Chan make this a definite period peace, One of the daughters obviously is imitating Garbo and mistaken for Hepburn while she's claiming to be Crawford. Little amusing bits here and there like that make this easy to get through, and fortunately it's just an hour.