This movie bored me when I was ten and it was new, and a second viewing doesn't improve it much. Oh, it's nice to see Una Merkel through adult eyes, knowing who she is, and the movie has a certain curiosity value as an example of Disney's early 1960's film-making. The fruit basket art direction, the mickey-mousy accompanying score, the sophomoric comedy, all are in place. There's an English sheepdog (same one they used in THE SHAGGY DOG?).
But it's no POLLYANNA (which holds up), and its arch and rambling story -- and the unrewarding conceit of all those mediocre Richard and Robert Sherman songs that characters are always bursting into -- undermine the talents of some reasonably talented people. Hayley Mills is visibly tired of parts like this, and poor Dorothy McGuire -- unflatteringly coiffed but beatific as always -- has to open her mouth so some other lady can dub in the superfluous title song. There's no necessity, what is more, for the likes of Eddie Hodges or Deborah Walley in any movie whatsoever. Walley is an annoying actress playing a character who's suppose to annoy us. The result is exponentially irksome.
This is based on the book MOTHER CAREY'S CHICKENS which Bette Davis went on suspension at Warner Brothers rather than do (they don't credit that book by title in the credits, and no wonder). But really, what is the point of a movie about Bostonians adapting to life in the country when Boston looks like a back lot, rural Maine looks like a back lot, and it all basically takes place in that don't-confuse-this-with-reality Disney world? It was perfectly all right for the island in SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON to look like a ride at Disneyland, because the whole thing WAS a ride at Disneyland (even the original novel).
The nadir may be the time when Burl Ives sings a song called "The Ugly Bug Ball" with nature footage spliced in, all manipulated so that real insects seem to be dancing and playing themselves as orchestral instruments. If a ballet company came to visit this little Maine town and did a performance in tutus in the town square, or if war broke out in Cuba and Michael J. Pollard came home with a medal to be greeted by Sousa and his band, I swear you wouldn't be one bit surprised.
This is the time when Hayley is experiencing her Spring's Awakening, and it's always interesting to see what sort of boy flesh they find as a love interest for her. In IN SEARCH OF THE CASTAWAYS it was Michael Anderson Jr. Here it's (you think at first) sexy James Stacy. Again, through adult eyes, it's strange to see the tragic Mr. Stacy at this age, being the ripe forbidden fruit and future hot bet. The guy she ends up with (sort of; he doesn't kiss her or anything) is professional beauty Peter Brown. But the movie is tiring, slow going, and it took all of my critical distance and personal nostalgia to get me through it.
But it's no POLLYANNA (which holds up), and its arch and rambling story -- and the unrewarding conceit of all those mediocre Richard and Robert Sherman songs that characters are always bursting into -- undermine the talents of some reasonably talented people. Hayley Mills is visibly tired of parts like this, and poor Dorothy McGuire -- unflatteringly coiffed but beatific as always -- has to open her mouth so some other lady can dub in the superfluous title song. There's no necessity, what is more, for the likes of Eddie Hodges or Deborah Walley in any movie whatsoever. Walley is an annoying actress playing a character who's suppose to annoy us. The result is exponentially irksome.
This is based on the book MOTHER CAREY'S CHICKENS which Bette Davis went on suspension at Warner Brothers rather than do (they don't credit that book by title in the credits, and no wonder). But really, what is the point of a movie about Bostonians adapting to life in the country when Boston looks like a back lot, rural Maine looks like a back lot, and it all basically takes place in that don't-confuse-this-with-reality Disney world? It was perfectly all right for the island in SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON to look like a ride at Disneyland, because the whole thing WAS a ride at Disneyland (even the original novel).
The nadir may be the time when Burl Ives sings a song called "The Ugly Bug Ball" with nature footage spliced in, all manipulated so that real insects seem to be dancing and playing themselves as orchestral instruments. If a ballet company came to visit this little Maine town and did a performance in tutus in the town square, or if war broke out in Cuba and Michael J. Pollard came home with a medal to be greeted by Sousa and his band, I swear you wouldn't be one bit surprised.
This is the time when Hayley is experiencing her Spring's Awakening, and it's always interesting to see what sort of boy flesh they find as a love interest for her. In IN SEARCH OF THE CASTAWAYS it was Michael Anderson Jr. Here it's (you think at first) sexy James Stacy. Again, through adult eyes, it's strange to see the tragic Mr. Stacy at this age, being the ripe forbidden fruit and future hot bet. The guy she ends up with (sort of; he doesn't kiss her or anything) is professional beauty Peter Brown. But the movie is tiring, slow going, and it took all of my critical distance and personal nostalgia to get me through it.