Summer Magic

This movie (based on a book called Mother Carey's Chickens) is for anyone who spent their Sunday nights watching The Wonderful World of Disney while growing up and wants to share that same feeling with their own children. Turn on the closed caption, gather up your little girls and sing along with the movie.

The Carey family is saved from having to live in "a hovel...that's not in a very nice neighborhood, either" by a mysterious "Mr. Hamilton" via the town postmaster/constable/general store owner Osiam Poppham. The eldest daughter Nancy's (Hayley Mills) boundless enthusiasm and interaction with a fun assortment of characters such as a homeless cousin that "Thinks she's the pink of perfection" to Mrs. Poppham (Una Merkle-whom Hayley Mills fans will recognize from the original Parent Trap movie) who believes in a "good solid black cloud with no silver linings"

This movie is a remake of a movie called Mother Carey's Chickens (1938) Anne Shirley as Nancy Carey, Ruby Keeler as Kitty Carey, James Ellison as Ralph Thurston, Fay Bainter as Mrs. Carey, Walter Brennan as Mr. Popham, and Donnie Dunagan as Peter Carey.

Both are really good family movies. Summer Magic is more on the musical end and Mother Carey's Chickens is more of the romance side. Both have a lot of love, kindness and care one for another.

Many films are criticized for what they are not, rather than what they are. "Summer Magic" is not a critical, gritty look at the turn-of-the-century life in rural Maine. It is a good-natured, fun film that you don't have to worry about letting your children watch. Hayley Mills is a delight as the ever-optimistic Nancy Carey who misrepresents her family's situation in order to win the sympathy of Mr. Popham, a rural Maine postmaster, general store owner, sheriff, etc. who allows them to rent a house he doesn't own. The plot is complicated by the unanticipated visit of Nancy's snobby cousin, Julia, the dour nagging of Mr. Popham's doom-and-gloom wife, Mariah, and the ultimate arrival of the house's true owner at a most inconvenient moment. Burl Ives as the laconically good-natured Mr. Popham is a absolute treat to watch. And the climax of the film (which I won't reveal here)makes me laugh out loud no matter how many times I've seen it. Those looking for a good family film should look no further.

My sister and I discovered this movie at least 20 years ago, and fell in love with it instantly. It is just utterly delightful. Hayley Mills plays the oldest daughter of a newly impoverished family that moves to an old yellow house in Maine. Dorothy McGuire plays the widowed mother; Burl Ives is at his incomparable best in the role of Osh Popham, the town's general factotum married to what has to be the gloomiest woman in the state of Maine, if not the United States. Based on the book "Mother Carey's Chickens," by Kate Douglas Wiggin, the story was well adapted for the screen, maintaining the integrity and heart of the novel while making the cast a little more manageable. This truly is a feel good movie that you'll want to add to your collection.

This and other films such as "The Three Lives of Thomasina" are shining examples of why Disney's classics are always ten times better than the mindless live-action kiddie dribble that even the Disney companies make today. "Summer Magic" is a fun and pleasant film about two teenaged cousin girls and their amusing rivalry after they both move to the country with their family. One is a care-free country girl and the other is a prompt and prissy city gal. It's fun to see these two ladies come-of-age in all aspects from having to share a room to throwing a party just to get to know the handsome new school teacher (the story is also a lot more interesting to watch than most of today's teen flicks). Hayley Mills is of course the highlight of the film stealing every scene that she's in, a talent she displays in several other Disney films. The rest of the cast is just as charming which makes the movie charming itself. If only Disney could go back to making movies like this instead of making more Mighty Ducks sequels.