Chère Brigitte

I'm sure that the folks who were casting Lost in Space must have seen Dear Brigitte and said to themselves, young Billy Mumy would be perfect casting as the precocious Will Robinson.

Dear Brigitte is a film about a professor of literature who lives on a converted old Mississippi riverboat with his family and the former captain of the steamship, Ed Wynn. An almost hippie like existence for the very Republican James Stewart and his wife Glynis Johns and children Cindy Carol and Billy Mumy.

Stewart has an obsession about the sciences just taking over colleges, including his own and this fuels an additional obsession into finding a talent that must be hidden in his son. Young Mr. Mumy turns out to be both color blind and tone deaf, so art and music are out.

He turns out to be a mathematical genius though and Billy has an additional obsession himself, he wants to meet Brigitte Bardot. Now that's something the males in the audience can empathize with.

I think Dear Brigitte came out just a tad to early. A couple of years later with the flower power movement in full bloom, this thing would have really been big box office. Audiences might have really identified with an eccentric professor with his family living on a riverboat.

Fabian is also along for the ride as daughter Cindy Carol's boyfriend. He was nearing the end of the line as a teenage heart throb. But I'm sure his presence in the film brought more than a few dollars in.

John Williams and Jesse White who play a couple of con men do a nice job and of course we cannot forget the presence of Brigitte Bardot playing herself.

It's a pleasant innocuous little family comedy helped by a very good cast.

Jimmy Stewart makes it look so effortless that one would think he wasn't even acting. Which is the mark of a great actor. This was his second outing with Glynis Johns, the first time was in 1951 in the black and white British film, No Highway In The Sky.

In Dear Brigette, Stewart plays a Literature Professor at a College in California that like most of the culture of the day was struggling with the rampant advances of technology threatening to over shadow everyone and everything.

The main focus of the film is on child actor Bill Mumy who later went on to star in Lost In Space. He plays a young boy named "Erasmus", who is a math wizard and who can do complex calculations in his head, seemingly without effort, and not quite knowing how he does it.

While people and forces around him would like to capitalize on his gift, his father played by Stewart struggles to protect his son from them, and allow him to remain a "innocent little boy". A delightful interlude takes place half way through the picture when "Erasmus" receives an invitation to visit Paris, France and Brigette Bardot; whom he has been secrety writing to for some time, hence the pictures title.

It's a bit of a slow start, but Dear Brigitte is a very cute movie. James Stewart plays a stereotypical absentminded professor who randomly lives with his family in a ship that's ashore. It's a shameless copy of Mary Poppins, with Ed Wynn as the giggling, bumbling narrator with no character development, and Glynis Johns as the never-wavering matriarch who stands by her husband.

The family comedy can be separated into three sections. In the first third, everyone in the family plays a classical instrument. They're all very talented, except for the youngest son Bill Mumy. He doesn't fit in, and Jimmy worries. In the second third, Bill discovers his hidden talent: mathematics. It's a slap in the face to his father, who is an poetry professor instead. But since Bill is able to do complex math in his head, he quickly becomes a sensation. The final third addresses the title of the movie. Bill has a crush on Brigitte Bardot, and he writes her fan letters. But you won't find any spoilers here. To find out how all three sub-plots end up, you'll have to watch this pseudo-Disney family flick. James Stewart is very sweet with his children, but the opening silliness is a little unnecessary. Fast-forward if you need to, because the last third is very cute.

I've always have had a soft spot for family comedies, when they are charming, witty, and engaging, and this fits the bill. Its a harmless, lovely entertainment. Jimmy Stewart is is good, warm mode as a father who finds that his son (an endearing Bill Mumy) is a math genius who can solve the hardest of equations in just seconds and also has the knack for figuring out horse races as well. True he's also colorblind and tonedeaf, but not even geniuses can have everything. Glynis Johns has a bit of a smaller part as Stewart's wife but she is as welcome as ever and knows exactly how to play a scene.

The film receives its name from all the lett ers the boy sends to Brigitte Bardot, upon whom he has a case of a very youthful crush. Ms. Bardot actually appears toward the end, and her cameo is one of the high points of the film. This film might not be appreciated by cynics, nor by those wanting the height of sophistication, but as an example of cinematic comfort food, it is utterly enchanting.

Fairly good comedy featuring an ultra smart little boy who is used by swindlers for their own gain despite the over protectiveness of his father. Meanwhile, the boy is scheming to meet the famous French actress while his sister is anguishing over boys and proms. Typical 60's comedy.