Christopher Bean

Christopher Bean is a 1933 American Pre-Code comedy film directed by Sam Wood and written by Laurence E. Johnson and Sylvia Thalberg, based on the play The Late Christopher Bean by Sidney Howard. The film stars Marie Dressler, Lionel Barrymore, Helen Mack, Beulah Bondi and Russell Hardie. The film was released on November 17, 1933, by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was Marie Dressler's final role before her death from cancer in July 1934.

When news 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, New York art critic Maxwell Davenport and rival art dealers Rosen and Tallant set off for Haggett's Massachusett's home. There, the unsuspecting, impoverished Haggett family receives a telegram from Davenport informing them that he will be arriving at noon to discuss his favorite artist, Christopher Bean. Milton and Hannah Haggett and their unmarried daughters Susan and Ada are surprised by the telegram, as they had always regarded Bean as a failed incompetent. Only their homely maid Abby, who is about to quit and leave for Chicago, has fond memories of the dead painter.

Before Davenport's scheduled arrival, Warren Creamer, a former student of Bean who makes his living as a paperhanger, comes by the Haggett house to court Susan. Because Warren's prospects appear dim, Susan's social climbing mother Hannah discourages his visit, while the less appealing Ada, who is determined to marry before her younger sister, boldly competes for his attentions. When Warren makes clear his intentions to marry Susan, however, both Hannah and Ada angrily throw him out of the house.

A short time later, Tallant arrives at the Haggetts' and, while posing as the magnanimous Davenport, gives Milton one hundred dollars as payment for Bean's long-outstanding medical bills. Surprised by his apparent good fortune, Milton happily gives Tallant a Bean painting, which he had been using to stop leaks in his chicken house. When Tallant learns that the back of another Bean painting has been used as a canvas by Ada, he buys her amateurish painting for fifty dollars. Later, after she has agreed to help Susan and Warren elope, Abby is approached by the conniving Tallant, who knows that Bean had a special rapport with the Haggetts' maid. Abby reveals that Bean painted a portrait of her just before he died, but refuses to sell it to Tallant.