Comedy about what happens to a typical midwestern family when a visiting New York theatre critic slips and breaks his hip leaving their house and is forced to stay there to recouperate. The critic, Sheridan Whiteside, completely disrupts, and unnerves, the family and townspeople. He doesn't shy away from telling people exactly what he thinks of them and how they should live their lives. Further complicating things are visits by his eccentric theatrical friends.

• Alice Ghostley
• Ethel Merman
• Fredric March