Reducing (1931)

From humbles beginnings, divorced Polly Rochay has made a success of herself in owning and operating a New York City beauty parlor specializing in weight loss. Learning of their financial straits, Polly pays for her sister, Marie Truffle, and her family of her husband Elmer and their three offspring to move from their hometown of South Bend to New York City into her spacious house, Marie to work at the parlor. This move does not sit well with Polly's snobbish young adult daughter, Joyce Rochay, who does not want to associate with her unsophisticated relations. Marie herself realizes that she does not fit the mold of the beauty parlor employee in indeed being unsophisticated and packing a few extra pounds herself. Despite Marie being the cause of one mishap after another at the parlor, Polly retains her "blood thicker than water" mentality. The same may not be said of Joyce and Marie's young adult daughter Vivian. While Vivian is happy to be reconnected with her friend Tommy Haverly who moved to New York City from South Bend, who works as a postal clerk, and who wants to marry her, Vivian is also looking to expand her horizons, that path which seems to go through Joyce's wealthy boyfriend Johnnie Beasley who seems to want to move from Joyce to her pretty cousin.