Last month I was doing a tour of Little Libraries -- I visited maybe 150 -- and this was one of two DVDs that I found. As a Cary Grant fan, I had actually never heard of this film, but I was curious to give it a watch Betsy Drake, as it turns out, is his co-star, and she was also his wife at the time -- his 3rd of 5. Drake doesn't seem to have had a very robust film career, and she didn't stay married long to Grant. There's nothing wrong with her, although it's difficult to say that she had any real star power.
That said, she was probably perfectly cast for this role -- the role of a mother with three kids of her own, but still someone caring enough to want to take on additional "problem children."
it's a rather odd film, coming across almost as a propaganda film --promoting the idea that people should consider fostering/adopting older "problem" children. The Roses never actually adapt the two children that enter their family, but Anna (Drake) explains this by saying fostering is a way for them to be able to afford the new kids -- with the help and support of the welfare agency.
Jane (Iris Mann) comes first. She's a 13-year-old girl who many thought had mental problems. She has attempted suicide and seems a little emotional. George (Cary Grant) isn't as gung-ho about bringing new children into the family as Anna, but he agrees to let Jane stay two weeks; when the two-week period is up, Jane prepares to go back to the children's home, but George is the one who decides she can stay.
Jimmy John (Clifford Tatum Jr.) is the next child to enter their home. He's 12, has braces on his legs -- from polio? -- and seems a little more violent and emotional. He doesn't even know how to read. Everyone has given up on him, but like Jane, apparently all he needed was a few weeks with a supportive family. He puts the violence behind him, starts exercising his leg muscles, and gets heavily involved in scouting.
Although the timespan of the film is just a few months, by the end, Jane and Jimmy John are well-adjusted members of the family. It's nice to believe that things can happen so quickly like that, but that's just movie magic. Not of it seems real.
Take Jimmy John, for example, he's still just 12, and he's only been in Scouts for a few months. Somehow, however, he's already earned the Eagle Scout? Huh? This give him the chance to say to the other scouts, "I got a leg up on you fellas because I got to pick my parents," but as nice as that line is, how in the hell did he earn the Eagle Scout in less than 3 months at the age of 12?
As I watched this film, I wondered who was it made for? Surely Cary Grant fans went to see it, but what did they think of him in the role? He's more or less a supporting character. Was there an interest in fostering parenting in the early 1950s, and was this movie meeting that interest?
I didn't think the movie was great, but I also didn't think it was the worst film I've ever seen... just peculiar and odd.
Rating: 3/5 stars
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