sophieoscarcat

So much was riding on this film to re-invigorate Betty Hutton's film career that the "star" quality of Hutton in this "B" movie overwhelmed the production, making the actors supporting her really have to work to make their scenes memorable in any way. Most did well with the exception of Dana Andrews whose own career was all but on the way out. He is too withdrawn to have any chemistry whatsoever with Hutton who was really trying hard to reign in her own habit of dominating every scene. It's a nice script, an oft told tale of high school reunions but with a twist in that it often centered on the relationship between Hutton and her domineering father who seemed to want his little girl to ever remain a spinster. Anyone looking like Hutton made this spinster character a bit unbelievable.

Others have mentioned Hutton's "cross eyed" moment when she sings "That Old Feeling," but the truth is, she broke character and started chewing up the scenery when the tune which started slowly began to swing. Having seen Hutton in concert in Vegas I can say with certainty that this "cross-eyed" moment was Hutton on stage, not the shy spinster she was portraying. Interesting that they let her loose like that but then, that was Hutton. She never failed to dominate the screen when she lit into a song. I loved it. It was the last song she would ever sing in a film and thank God she gave it the Hutton touch. It may have been the highlight of the film.

Anyone interested in Hutton's career must see this film because it shows her in a more mature mode and she has a bang up scene with the actor playing her father near the end. This should have led to more roles but her own emotional problems began to surface around town and she never made another film. Too bad. Really, too bad.

I was about 11 years old when my parents took me to the Fox Theater in Inglewood, California to see this film. It just so happened that Dean Stockwell was appearing in person before the film and was answering questions from the audience. He was very shy and an adult male did most of the answering. I remember loving this film - perhaps because the star was present - as a western adventure involving a big locomotive. I remember the relationship between the father, looking for the boy, and the son as being more realistic than I had seen in films. By this age I was a veteran film-goer, seeing my first film, a Walt Disney film, at age of six. I gotta get a copy of this film to re-live it.

I saw this film in its original release in Hollywood and have never forgotten June Allyson's shrew of a wife and how she kept putting the psychological knife in her poor, emotionally wasted husband, played by Jose Ferrer. I was too young to know why a wife would do this but the effect has never left me. This film deserves a beautifully restored DVD presentation. June Allyson deserved an Oscar nomination and perhaps the award given the fact that she made a 180 turn against her long established type. Ms. Allyson would only make three more Hollywood films and then escape into television with her own series and then guest host and star in her husband, Dick Powell's, weekly anthology series. She proved her dramatic mettle over and over on television and lived out a serene, much respected retirement in California's wine country near Clint Eastwood's place. Those in Ojai, according to what one resident told me, would see Ms. Allyson in town and about and always gave her the respect of admired distance, yet with warmth. I loved June Allyson, still a handsome beauty to the end.