Keeping Company

{{All plot|date=September 2025}} {{Use mdy dates|date=February 2026}} {{Use American English|date=January 2025}} {{Infobox film | name = Keeping Company | image = Keeping Company FilmPoster.jpeg | caption = | director = [[S. Sylvan Simon]] | producer = [[Samuel Marx]] | story = [[Herman J. Mankiewicz]] | screenplay = [[Harry Ruskin]]<br>[[James H. Hill]]<br>[[Adrian Scott]] | starring = [[Frank Morgan]]<br>[[Ann Rutherford]] <br>[[Irene Rich]] | music = [[Daniele Amfitheatrof]] | cinematography = [[Karl Freund]] | editing = [[Elmo Veron]] | studio = [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer]] | distributor = [[Loews Cineplex Entertainment|Loew's Inc.]] | released = {{Film date|1940|12|27}} | runtime = 80 minutes | country = United States | language = English | budget = | gross = }} '''''Keeping Company''''' is a 1940 American [[drama film]] directed by [[S. Sylvan Simon]] and starring [[Frank Morgan]], [[Ann Rutherford]] and [[Irene Rich]].<ref>Schmitt p.145</ref> Morgan plays a [[real estate broker]] with three daughters who all have their own problems. The film was produced by [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer]] and was followed by a sequel ''[[This Time for Keeps (1942 film)|This Time for Keeps]]'' (1942).<ref>Fetrow p.248</ref>

==Plot summary== Harry C. Thomas and his wife Susan have a hard time keeping track of their three very different daughters: Evelyn, the eldest, ready for marriage; Mary, engaged to car dealer Ted Foster; and Harriet, an unpredictable adolescent trying to catch up to her sisters, and always on the hunt for ice cream.

Mary's engagement prompts Harry and Susan to give their daughter advice about married life. Mary and Ted are certain that marriage will be a walk in the park, but almost instantly Ted's old girlfriend, Anastasia Atherton, arrives from New York. She needs financial help and Ted gives her a car but doesn't tell Mary about the gift, which causes a misunderstanding when she finds in the car a check Ted wrote for Anastasia. Believing that Ted is having an affair, Mary goes home to her parents. Meanwhile, Ted manages to put the car shop's owner Mr. Hellman at risk, ordering 40 new cars that the intended customer refuses to buy. Humiliated, Ted goes into hiding and Mary must arrange and attend the company picnic alone. Hellman had planned to announce Ted as his successor at the picnic, but he doesn't; Mary scolds him and speaks highly of Ted's good points to bring Hellman to his senses.

Ted reappears and tells everyone that he has managed to save the Hellman company from ruin by selling the cars to another dealer. Hellman talks to Ted, revealing how his wife had stood up for him while he was away. Ted is then reconciled with Mary.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/80136/keeping-company|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131224115157/http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/80136/Keeping-Company/|url-status=dead|archive-date=December 24, 2013|title = Keeping Company}}</ref>

==Cast== {{Cast listing| * [[Frank Morgan]] as Harry C. Thomas * [[Ann Rutherford]] as Mary Thomas * [[Irene Rich]] as Mrs. Susan Thomas * [[Virginia Weidler]] as Harriet Thomas * [[Gloria DeHaven]] as Evelyn 'Skinny' Thomas * [[John Shelton (actor)|John Shelton]] as Ted 'Teddy' Foster * [[Gene Lockhart]] as Mr. Hellman * [[Virginia Weidler]] as Harriet Thomas * [[Virginia Grey]] as Anastasia 'Stasia' Atherton * [[Dan Dailey]] as Jim Reynolds * [[Sara Haden]] as Mrs. Foster * [[Richard Crane (actor)|Richard Crane]] as Eddie Lane * [[Fern Emmett]] as Mrs. Miller * Harry Tyler as Joe Green, Ice Cream Man * [[John Webb Dillion]] as Postman * [[Buddy Messinger]] as Basketball Ticket Boy }}

==References== {{reflist}}

==Bibliography== * Fetrow, Alan G. ''Feature Films, 1940-1949: a United States Filmography''. McFarland, 1994. * Schmitt, Gavin. ''Karl Freund: The Life and Films''. McFarland, 2022.

==External links== * {{IMDb title|0033782}} * {{TCMDb title|80136}} * {{AFI film|8082}}

[[Category:1940 films]] [[Category:American black-and-white films]] [[Category:Films directed by S. Sylvan Simon]] [[Category:1940 drama films]] [[Category:Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films]] [[Category:American drama films]] [[Category:Films scored by Daniele Amfitheatrof]] [[Category:Films with screenplays by Herman J. Mankiewicz]] [[Category:1940 English-language films]] [[Category:1940 American films]] [[Category:English-language drama films]]