It Grows on Trees

The Baxters are a typical happy American family trying to live on too little money. Mrs. Polly Baxter acquires two mysterious trees that got into a nursery shipment by mistake. They turn out to be money trees. After initial problems, Polly decides to spend the money.

Irene Dunne is "Polly", happily married to "Philip" (Dean Jagger) with two children. They are pretty skint, until - that is - she finds her husband wiping his razor with a new five dollar bill. That is just the start of a series of windfalls that she is determined to capitalise upon, despite the objections of her inherently honest husband. Once we've established the source of the cash, she goes on a spending spree - but then things take an unexpected turn causing her - and her family - quite a bit of distress. Dunne is on good form here and Jagger is also quite entertaining; the writing is not great - it gets a touch frenetic at times, but there is an underlying message about greed that is gently, but potently imparted by director Arthur Lubin. I rather enjoyed the ending - thanks to an enthusiastic journalist, a dedicated botanist and a few pokes at some incompetent government officialdom! It's a short-ish feature, a little bit silly, but I found it quite enjoyable to watch.