So's Your Aunt Emma!

Zasu Pitts plays Emma--a spinster who lives with her very legalistic and sexless sisters. Despite this, Emma is a pretty nice old lady--sheltered but sweet. One days she's reading about a young boxer who just happens to be the son of an old boyfriend--a boxer of whom her nasty sisters did not approve decades earlier. On a lark, Emma decides to head to the city to watch the guy fight.

Once in town, she sees that the young boxer is not at all focused and is a bit of a weenie. Emma decides to stick around and give him a bit of advice. However, some gangsters see her and think she's the dreaded 'Ma Parker' (a takeoff on Ma Barker of gangster fame from the 1930s). And, though a series of mistakes, she's caught up the middle of a murder and the police think she might be responsible! Oddly, however, instead of running from this mistaken identity, Emma decides to play it up to the hilt and pretend to actually be Ma Parker! Why, in order to infiltrate the mob and discover where the young boxer is--as he was just kidnapped.

All in all, a crazy and unbelievable sort of plot but it was made enjoyable by Pitts' sweet character. Despite being a B-film from a third-rate studio (Monogram), it's a very enjoyable little comedy mixed with a bit of film noir. Not great--but certainly a lot better than you'd expect.