It's a Big Country: An American Anthology

This par excellence a film only the American could make.I cannot imagine a French,English or Italian director making a movie to glorify his/her country.

Wellmann and co tell us that America is a big country ,with big differences but where everybody has his place in the sun: in the "celebrities" segment,there are plenty of black artists such as Armstrong ,but the civil rights were ignored in 1949.

What saves this naive film containing more finer feelings than a Capra movie,is some kind of humor .Take the first scene on a train and the last sentence of the baffled traveler or the Hungarian daddy who does not want his daughters to marry a Greek,cause we are "enemies" .How great the melting pot is!And so are Gene Kelly and Janet Leigh.

Some stars only appear a few minutes:Gary Cooper tells us what a wonderful state "Lone Star" Texas is where oil spurts out everywhere under your feet;Ethel Barrymore plays a delightful old lady who is cross cause she was not counted when they took a census of the population.

The last sketch ,about glasses ,was perhaps not a very good choice to conclude the movie.

It was,is and will always be a big country.

I'm not sure why this anthology film was made, but its segments seem to reflect a desire by new MGM head of production Dore Schary, a Democrat, to demonstrate that liberal values are American values. (There was a lot of equating liberals with communists, at that time).

An opening segment on a train, that draws us into the whole thing, features James Whitmore as a patriotic, "I love America" type. "Which America?" asks the always-debonair and well-spoken William Powell. We then see the many sides of our country depicted through vignettes.

There are a couple of segments against prejudice. One is about a Greek-hating Hungarian American father of several girls (S. Z. Sakall) whose eldest daughter (Janet Leigh) falls for a young Greek American (Gene Kelly - actually pushing 40 at the time but you'd never guess it). As a piece against xenophobia, it's nice, and gets its point across with humor, wit, and romance.

There's also a segment against religious prejudice, where an ex-seviceman named Maxie Klein (Keefe Brasselle) visits the mother (Marjorie Main) of a dead war buddy. At first the mother doesn't know the man because her son had used his nickname in his letters. She's suspicious of his motives because he's Jewish. Eventually she's grateful for the comfort the stranger has given her, putting aside whatever prejudices she was harboring, and requesting his mother's address so that she can write her about it all.

The segments are all fairly interesting, but not exactly first-rate drama or comedy.

There's one about a minister (Van Johnson) who learns a lesson in humility from a deacon (played by Louis Stone). There's one in which Fredric March plays a working-class Italian American who won't be convinced by a schoolteacher (Nancy Davis) his son needs glasses. Gary Cooper plays a cowboy in a humorous monologue about Texas. Louis Calhern narrates a documentary sequence about African Americans. Ethel Barrymore and George Murphy star in a dramatic sketch wherein an old Boston-Irish woman is upset because the US Census ignored her. Etc.

The overall effect is a little like picking up an old copy of Reader's Digest.

Without the stars, this would be very minor, indeed. With them, it becomes a big film. Not a great film, but, undoubtedly, a big one. It covers a lot of ground, and comes up a little bit short.

Well-intentioned anthology film from MGM that lacks a clear focus. It's a collection of short stories that don't seem to have any other point except, I suppose, that the United States is a melting pot and how swell that is. Absolutely nothing wrong with that idea but I feel like more effort could have been put into (a) writing better stories and (b) having the stories connect better to drive home the "we're all different but we're all together" theme. The best anthology films tend to connect their stories and this just doesn't do that well. Still, it's full of old stars and the stories themselves, while not the strongest, are enjoyable enough. Worth a look for classic film fans. Probably kryptonite to cynics.

Collection of stories to show the melting pot aspect of the USA. The film is blessed with an array of talent that only could be pulled together in Hollywood at its peak.

Episodic by nature and all the vignettes have their charm but the first three are really the best.

William Powell and James Whitmore breeze their way through a lively discussion of the ever evolving nature of the country. Their reactions to each other are what makes the skit.

Next up is a little story about not being lost in the crowd made charming by Ethel Barrymore's gentle performance.

The next segment is a tribute to notable African Americans which is nice in and of itself but that's also why it's a bit problematic. Considering the time it was made the isolated state of the short would have made it easy to snip out in the South. Of course the same could be said for any of the stories but since their are not people of color in any of the other segments it's rather obvious that was the intention at the time. Still it's a nice opportunity to see the significant Americans it spotlights.

The other sections all showing various slices of life, aside from Gary Cooper's star bit simply representing Texas, are pleasant but are on the sticky side of sweet.

This was released during the height of the Red Scare of the early 1950s, and I suppose its purpose is for MGM to prove its patriotism to the powers that be. At the time numerous Hollywood figures both in front of and behind the camera were being hauled before Congress to testify pertaining their loyalty to the United States.

Directed by seven different directors and featuring an ensemble cast of both MGM contract actors and non contract players, this film portrays various stories and characters, each representing different aspects of American life as it existed in the 1950s. I won't go over every segment, but I will mention some that stood out and why.

In the segment concerning the Hungarian immigrant (S. Z. Sakall) who does not want his daughter to marry a Greek because Hungarians hate Greeks - Is that even true?

The third segment is different from the rest as it is a mini documentary concerning successful and prominent Black Americans. This is actually the best part of the film as it was very informative and progressive for its time.

The fifth segment about a Jewish soldier who has been to Korea visiting the mother of a dead comrade in arms seems like it might have originally been written concerning WWII soldiers.

The sixth segment has Gary Cooper as a Texan disputing Texas stereotypes by dispensing even more Texas stereotypes. Qualifications for this judgment - I am a Texan.

The seventh segment also seems like it might have been written for WWII. Van Johnson plays the minister in a church that the president attends when in Washington, and as a result he writes a bunch of dull wonky sermons about public policy that only the president could appreciate. The reason that I think that it was written for WWII is that Lewis Stone talks about how the president was missing if traveling or relaxing at Hyde Park, which is where Roosevelt lived. Also, at the end, when the president is going to come see Johnson's character, there is the distinct sound of crutches.

I liked the introductory segment the best because it had William Powell in it AND it had Powell, as a passenger on a train who puts an annoying know it all in his place. Powell is actually the reason I decided to watch this in the first place.

I would say the film as a whole is a tough slog unless you look at it in its historical context.