Sis Hopkins Reviews

Republic tried its best to make hayseed Canova a star with this vehicle and succeeded in launching a film that would be reissued four times. Canova mistakenly believes her uncle Butterworth is down on his luck (actually he is quite well-off and recently retired), so she invites him and his family to her farm. But on their arrival Butterworth and family discover Canova's house has burned to the ground so the city cousins take in the country girl, much to the horror of Canova's snobby cousin Hayward. Butterworth compounds Hayward's furor by sending Canova to the same college she is attending. Canova's an instant hit and inadvertently bumps Hayward from a campus play. Crosby, Hayward's boy friend, thinks Canova is great in the play, which causes an argument and has Hayward begin plotting revenge. She fools her cousin into appearing at a burlesque show under the ruse that this is part of a sorority initiation. Canova's dress is rigged to fall apart and Hayward has informed the local police, who raid the club. Though Canova escapes arrest she is expelled from school. But Hayward feels guilty about what she has done and explains everything to her father. Butterworth tells the dean the whole story and Canova is reinstated for a happy ending. The rural versus city humor appealed to the grass roots audience but was dated even in the big cities at the time of the film's release, resulting in a dumb, broad-humored bore for some and a delight to others. Hayward was good as the nasty cousin in her first Republic outing, giving a glimmer of better things to come, but most of the cast coasts through the formula vehicle. This was one of Republic's more expensive ventures. It was filmed at a cost of $500,000 which was quite a sum for the small studio. The rights to the story, which had been a Broadway play and then a silent Mabel Normand comedy, cost $50,000 alone. Songs by Frank Loesser and Jule Styne include: "Cracker Barrel Country," "If You're in Love," "Well? Well?," "It Ain't Hay (It's the USA)," and "Look at You, Look at Me" (sung by Susan Hayward and Bob Crosby). Canova sings the traditional "Wait for the Wagon" and her own version of "Some of These Days." After only two films, Canova, on the strength of SIS HOPKINS, demanded and received script, cast, and director approval and the right to co-own her pictures. No one else in the entire Republic stable received such a contract except John Wayne, and that at a much later date.