Made during the height of the McCarthy era, Leo McCarey's MY SON, JOHN is virulent anti-communist propaganda masquerading as...what, exactly? A tragic family melodrama, I guess. Anyway, middle-aged suburban couple Lucille (Helen Hayes) and Dan Jefferson (Dean Jagger) have three adult sons, two of which are okey-dokey, i.e., big, blonde strapping former football jocks who are shipping off to the war in Korea. Their third son, dark-haired John (Robert Walker), is unfortunately problematic. He's an overeducated, effeminate egghead who cannot be bothered to come home from his high falutin' government job in Washington to see off his two brothers. Furthermore, he's too well-spoken, doesn't have a girlfriend (highly suspicious!), mocks his father's American Legion-style patriotism, and his mother's sentimentality. Hell, he even mocks Christianity and the local priest! If these traits were not bad enough, John Jefferson also seems to enjoy the company of one of his former college professors a little too much (ahem). Well, where there's smoke there's fire and John's mother--played with scene-chewing intensity by Ms. Hayes--gradually comes to realize that her son John is nothing less than a two-faced, conniving commie spy. With the FBI closing in, John can opt to flee the country or face the music. In deference to his mother's wishes he does the latter and thus achieves a kind of redemption, even though it results in his assassination by his fellow commies. Still, a plot synopsis cannot convey the odd and unsettling tonalities of this strange opus. Holy Mackerel! MY SON, JOHN is one weird, overwrought movie, with a cloying script, tons of bad acting, a portentous musical score and a creepy, pervasive aura of paranoia in keeping with the times from which it was spewn. Particularly striking is the way this film valorizes the classic constellation of right wing household gods--religiosity, the patriarchal family, superheated patriotism, heteronormative sexuality, and (especially) anti-intellectualism--to create a stew of prejudice against those who think or behave differently. If you want to understand the authoritarian mentality behind Fascist art, watch this film and be amazed and enlightened.
Review of My Son John
