Full of Life

I was sick with the stomach flu one night and I turned on AMC around 3 in the morning not knowing what was on and I discovered this film. I had never heard of it before and I am a big film buff. I was pleasantly surprised. It is a nice sweet little gem of a film about family. It has some real tender moments and some quietly funny moments. It deals with a man, his wife, and his father. His father is originally from Italy and does not like his son's American ways. Which of course drives the son crazy. His wife is pregnant and he is concerned about that. His father wants to help him prepare to be a father, which has its good points and bad points. It shows, quite well, I think, the bonds and the love of family. If it is ever on I highly recommend it. It also has the best title for the story.

I've been discovering (and rediscovering) the wonderful career of Judy Holliday, but this is the first film out of 5 of hers I've seen so far that left me feeling disappointed and underwhelmed. It feels like a "slight', pleasant film at best, despite addressing some fairly taboo and/or moral issues with modern (for the time) sensibilities clashing with old world customary beliefs, and old world's more or less winning out. The film tries to straddle both viewpoints and ends up with a confusing conclusion that simply doesn't work. Watching with today's eyes, much of it's sensibilities come across either dated or hypocritical (i.e. Heavy drinking/drunkenness throughout and encouraging a pregnant woman to do so, marriage viewed as, "worthless" unless consummated in a Catholic church, etc). And while there are moments, the comedy, drama, and "moral" messages never seem to come to any solid fruition. Judy is fine here, but the real scene stealer of the film is Salvatore Baccaloni, who plays a character so over the top in a broad, comedic, stereotypical sense, that everyone around him looks flat or miscast by comparison. Richard Conte's the biggest culprit, IMO, conveying zero comedic sensibility, and his straight up dramatic approach feels incongruous and leaves the viewer confused as to what exactly it is they're watching.

It's a film that, while I was watching it, I couldn't help feeling that it could have been much more enjoyable and successful in it's intent had it been rewritten for Lucy and Desi.

John Fante always claimed that he wrote lousy screenplays,but I think he must have been fishing for compliments because his screenplay for "Full of Life" is every bit as funny and heart-warming as the book it is based on,which Fante also wrote.Whereas the novel was told from Fante's point of view,the movie really tells the story from his wife's point-of-view,and Judy Holliday was the perfect actress for the role.This is a wonderful little film from the days before America lost its innocence.

This movie is a sleeper. Coming at a time when "homey" [not in the modern gangbanger sense of the term] was in vogue. A pregnant woman wants an addition to her house for the new baby and gets her father-in-law, the great opera singer, Salvatore Baccaloni, a carpenter with old fashioned Italian family values, to do the work, over her husband's (Richard Conte)reservations. Holliday was at her peak after her brush with the McCarthy witch hunters and gives a great performance in this display of cross-cultural and cross-ethnic clashes of values. A fun, entertaining movie. See it. Enjoy. Feel good for a change.

Those expecting a screwball comedy will be disappointed, as this is a tender, touching slice-of-life comedy. The incomparable Baccaloni is afforded some screwball moments having sympathy pains along with Judy's pregnancy, and he is marvelous. It works all-the-better, I think, that Judy contrasts him by playing this one straight-up. This is one of the few movies I've ever seen that depicts the fact that when a woman ishaving her first child, we are far from experts at why we feel the way we feel or how it needs to be handled. Richard Conte is winningly tender as the insecure husband with money worries but unconditional love. And the supporting cast is marvelous. I love this movie.