A perfect movie is a rare thing. It requires a very good script, actors capable of giving a remarkable performance, and a superlative director capable of making everything come to together.
On Borrowed Time is such a movie.
No, it didn't have a big budget. The performers are not movie "stars." They were all seen as character actors in their day. But, as anyone who cares about movies knows, such "character actors" often had acting skills lacking in box-office attractions.
So, when a great director brings out the best of them - and that is what Harold S. Bucquet, a forgotten director who made no other great movies - did, greatness happens. In this case, in spades.
Everything works in this movie. Barrymore had given many great performances, and he delivers another one here. But so does Una Merkel, in one of her best roles. And Henry Travers, remembered from "It's a Wonderful Life," and Grant Mitchell, remembered from so many great movies.
It is never mawkish - until the very end. Everything is low-key, and therefore all the more moving.
You will never forget this movie once you have seen it. The premise is astounding, and we all want to believe it could be true. For an hour and a half this cast makes us believe it could be true, and we wait, spellbound, to see what will happen.
This is a small movie, but a perfect one. Watch it once, and you will never forget it.
And you will always wish it could come true.
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I saw this movie again tonight, on TCM, two years after I wrote the above review, and marveled once again at how good it is.
Granted, the first part is unremarkable. It doesn't really become interesting until Mr. Brink gets caught in the tree.
Thereafter it just gets better and better
SPOILER ALERT
This movie would never be made this way today. The child - played wonderfully by Bobs Watson - would never be allowed to die, as he does here. Perhaps even Grampa would be given an extension on life. But movie audiences in 1939 did not expect everything to have a happy ending. In fact, it has the only possible ending, since if Pud had lived, his Aunt Demmy would inevitably have gotten control of him and his estate.
This movie therefore ends perfectly, even if it's a real tear-jerker.
On Borrowed Time is such a movie.
No, it didn't have a big budget. The performers are not movie "stars." They were all seen as character actors in their day. But, as anyone who cares about movies knows, such "character actors" often had acting skills lacking in box-office attractions.
So, when a great director brings out the best of them - and that is what Harold S. Bucquet, a forgotten director who made no other great movies - did, greatness happens. In this case, in spades.
Everything works in this movie. Barrymore had given many great performances, and he delivers another one here. But so does Una Merkel, in one of her best roles. And Henry Travers, remembered from "It's a Wonderful Life," and Grant Mitchell, remembered from so many great movies.
It is never mawkish - until the very end. Everything is low-key, and therefore all the more moving.
You will never forget this movie once you have seen it. The premise is astounding, and we all want to believe it could be true. For an hour and a half this cast makes us believe it could be true, and we wait, spellbound, to see what will happen.
This is a small movie, but a perfect one. Watch it once, and you will never forget it.
And you will always wish it could come true.
------------------------
I saw this movie again tonight, on TCM, two years after I wrote the above review, and marveled once again at how good it is.
Granted, the first part is unremarkable. It doesn't really become interesting until Mr. Brink gets caught in the tree.
Thereafter it just gets better and better
SPOILER ALERT
This movie would never be made this way today. The child - played wonderfully by Bobs Watson - would never be allowed to die, as he does here. Perhaps even Grampa would be given an extension on life. But movie audiences in 1939 did not expect everything to have a happy ending. In fact, it has the only possible ending, since if Pud had lived, his Aunt Demmy would inevitably have gotten control of him and his estate.
This movie therefore ends perfectly, even if it's a real tear-jerker.