Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch

(Paramount). This version of Alice Hegan Rice's homely novel of the 1890's provides a cinema debut for able Actress Pauline Lord (Anna Christie, The Late Christopher Bean). As a poor goodwife in a decrepit shack, her activities include mothering five moppets, hoping her husband (Donald Meek) will return from the Klondike with gold, accepting charity from a rich girl and the rich girl's suitor. Mrs. Wiggs befriends a fluttery spinster (ZaSu Pitts) whom she aids in acquiring a husband (W. C. Fields) from a matrimonial agency. Mrs. Wiggs's second son dies and she nearly loses her shack. But she smiles through her tears and in the midst of adversity utters earthy, comforting aphorisms.

Directed in leisurely style by Norman Taurog against a good 1890 background, Mrs. Wiggs, as adult entertainment, rests on the wide eyes, the mobile mouth, the flustery gesturings of Pauline Lord. The homeliness of her acting is made more interesting by an undertone which partly suggests Lady Macbeth, partly an Episcopal bishop.

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