Christopher Bean (1933)
(Sam Wood, US 1933, 75 min., 35mm)
Unavailable on home video and streaming, this early 1930s comedy is rarely seen due to legal complications. After learning that several paintings by deceased artist Christopher Bean, whose life few people know anything about, may be located at the home of Dr. Milton Haggett (Lionel Barrymore), New York art critic Maxwell Davenport (H. B. Warner) and other rival art dealers set off for Haggett’s Massachusetts home. There, the unsuspecting, impoverished Haggett family receives a telegram from Davenport, informing them that he'll arrive at noon to discuss Bean, his favorite artist. Milton and Hannah Haggett (Beulah Bondi) and their unmarried daughters, Susan (Helen Mack) and Ada (Helen Shipman), are surprised by the telegram, as they had always regarded Bean as a failed incompetent. Only their maid, Abby (Marie Dressler), who is about to quit and leave for Chicago, has fond memories of the dead painter. What ensues is a series of slapstick events of the Haggett family finding the truth about their inherited paintings.