Full of Life

Full of life is a nice "little" film--and when I say "little", I mean it's a film with a very modest budget and pretenses. Sadly, although it's a film with very strong traditional family values, after it was made it was withheld from distribution because the Production Code Office would NOT approve the film because it showed a woman who was pregnant!! How showing a plump and pregnant film could harm the moral fabric of our society is beyond me--especially since the film celebrates life and family! The movie stars Judy Holliday and Richard Conte as a couple anticipating their first child. However, their life is seriously disrupted when Judy falls through the kitchen floor! It seems that termites have ruined the woodwork and the couple can't afford to have it fixed. So Conte asks his father (an experienced mason) to come to stay with them and fix the floor. However, this plan doesn't go as anticipated, as Dad is, at times, a pain in the neck while at other times he's wise and insightful. In the process, what it means to be family, religion and parenthood are all explored with a light and heart-warming hand. While not a great film, it's a lovely way to spend your time and I sure wish they made nice movies like this today!

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.

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 discovered "Full of Life" when I was in High School in the early 1980's. I had never even heard of the film (a comment shared by several contributors to this site) when it came on late night television. It's funny to think a teenager could have been so moved by a film about experiences he has not yet had; but, I was. And as I have returned to this film throughout the years I find it becomes all the more perceptive and, yes, beautiful. "Full of Life" is about life, about the human comedy and it contains three extraordinary performances: one from the ever-amazing Judy Holliday, one from the underrated Richard Conte and one from opera star Salvatore Baccaloni, magnificent as the father-in-law. The screenplay earned a nomination from the Screen Writers Guild, but that is the only contemporary recognition it received. However, it remains--to those willing to discover it's sublime charm--a quietly moving, tender film for thoughtful viewers.

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.