Come Next Spring

This rural drama set in 1920s Arkansas is a thoroughly winning film, full of charm and sentiment balanced by straightforward honesty and a trace of grit. Talented screenwriter Montgomery Pittman creates a believable situation involving a ne'er-do-well alcoholic husband (Steve Cochran) who returns to his wife (Ann Sheridan) and family years after abandoning them, hoping to make amends. The wife, however, has learned to manage well on her own, and the way she reacts to this unexpected reappearance is breathtakingly direct and no-nonsense. The leads are terrific; Cochran produced this movie for himself and it shows off his talent extremely well. In fact, the great Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni must have been impressed, because he starred Cochran in the drama Il Grido two years later. I seem to recall that Pittman was also involved with that film. Pittman later wrote some rural-themed episodes for The Twilight Zone, one of which stars James Best, who has a small role in Come Next Spring. Earl Hamner, also a Twilight Zone writer, seems to have taken several hints from Pittman when he came to create The Waltons; the character of the Walton mother, especially as played by Patricia Neal in The Homecoming, is quite reminiscent of Sheridan's performance. An article in New York magazine several years ago revealed that Martin Scorsese is a great admirer of Come Next Spring, which is an urgent candidate for video/DVD release.

Steve Cochran had formed his own independent-producing firm in 1955, called Robert Alexander Productions (his birth name was Robert Alexander Cochran), and an offshoot of this company, Tangent Films, was making television commercials in New York.

In 1950, while working together on Warner Brothers' "THE LION AND THE HORSE", Sherry Jackson introduced her young widowed mother to writer Montgomery Pittman, Steve Cochran's best friend.(Sherry Jackson's father was killed in an automobile accident in 1948.) This meeting between Pittman and Jackson's mother culminated in their marriage two years later, with Steve Cochran acting as best man for his friend Pittman.

In 1955, Montgomery Pittman turned his (exceptional) writing talent to providing a challenging vehicle for his vastly-talented young step-daughter and came up with COME NEXT SPRING. Steve Cochran bought the story for his just-formed Robert Alexander Productions.

Steve Cochran then SOLD it to Republic Pictures Corporation, for an undisclosed amount of money...plus the proviso that he would star in the film and Sherry Jackson would play the role of Annie Ballott. Republic agreed to the terms, laid out the money... and Robert Alexander Productions and erstwhile-producer Steve Cochran made a graceful exit, while (uncredited)Republic house-people took over the production of this now-recognized great film, directed by the unheralded (before or afterwards) R. G. Springsteen, who had only once before been handed a film---A PERILOUS JOURNEY--- with an A-budget and cast of this quality and never a story of the quality written by Montgomert Pittman, just written with his step-daughter in mind as the mute Annie Boots, who was mute because of an automobile accident.

House-director "Bud" Springsteen did himself proud. Possibly because Montgomery Pittman was standing near-by?

A beautiful tale of redemption, with delightful colors ,a deliciously old-fashioned atmosphere and moving performances by Ann Sheridan and Steve Cochran (all sweetness and light: not the usual tough guy).

It's not an action-packed movie, but rather a depiction of simple rural life where all people stand together when they are struck by a disaster ; sentimentality is kept to a minimum level and the rapport the prodigal father has with his children goes straight to the heart ; it's suitable for the whole family ,just like the "little house" TV series except that Charles Ingalls was always a goody-two-shoes.

I'd tone things a bit for the long rumble which is mostly filler ,but the final pictures make up for it.

The cast of this movie, Ann Sheridan, Steve Cochran, Walter Brennan have all made movies that are better known, but they've rarely been better than they are here.

I've never heard of the director, but he manages to pull a good performance out of the usually dreadful Sonny Tufts. Here he plays a tough, semi-bully (but not totally bad) adversary to Steve Cochran.

Other's have written the plot outline so I won't repeat it. One of my favorite scenes is Walter Brennan's drunken confession to Matt (Steve Cochran) about his birth certificate and his sober morning after contradiction! It's nearly as funny as Brennan's false teeth running gag in 'Red River'.

Ann Sheridan role was much like Sally Field's in 'Places In The Heart', totally different from her wise-cracking oomph-girl roles in the 30's and 40's.

I've never understood why Steve Cochran failed to become an A star. Like Robert Mitchum, he could play hero or heavy equally well. Reading his mini-biography, Cochran's own real life story (and death) would make a great noirish movie.

Sherry Jackson was a fine child star. Her performance as John Wayne's tomboy daughter in 'Trouble Along The Way' was equal if not better than her touching performance in this movie. She developed into a stunningly beautiful woman and then dropped from sight. She had a fine turn in the original Star Trek as a sexy-sad android.

'Come Next Spring' is very much like the better known 'Picnic' and I think it's just as good.

I've never forgotten the very last scene which still chokes me up when I think of it.

This exceptionally effective and emotional small film is one of Republic's very best, and one of their last that was creatively and carefully produced as the studio died. In lovely-odd storybook Tru-colour that really suits the Americana, and with an excellent cast, especially the always gorgeous Anne Sheridan and handsome unappreciated Steve Cochran COME NEXT SPRING with its Max Steiner Score, and Tony Bennett theme song has remained unloved an unappreciated for too long by mainstream knowledge. I've heard Scorsese recites it as an influence and it should well be studied by film makers to see how well a small budget but love and care can result in an excellent tough, real, romantic family drama. It actually wasn't until the very last scene did I realise I had seen it as a child and the overwhelming emotion just burst from me, so effective and elating is this finale. The real and crumbling backwoods town they all vist in one scene is probably as close to real surviving 1920s smallville-america as we would ever genuinely see. Look for this film and get settled, you are in for a major discovery and a real treat. Probably influenced by the mega success of FRIENDLY PERSUASION and with Johnny Guitar and Quiet Man rentals to spend, Republic saw a moment when they could still take a chance on small town values with an A grade tech effort. Vale Republic!