La bourrasque

An unexpected heart-warming movie I first saw on a late night movie about 21 years ago. The scenes of life for a new family in America are touching. The trials and tribulations of this family lead to an extremely heart-wrenching finale. I scan the T.V. paper every week looking for this film and make a point of watching it every time it's on, therefore I've seen it over 10 times

I took a quick look at the career of director Allen Reisner who worked at Studio One before taking on this feature film. Reisner went back to working mostly for television after All Mine To Give. But never in his career did he come close to doing anything as good as this film. Very few have.

All Mine To Give has become a Christmas classic in its own right as well received as It's A Wonderful Life. The story though is one of the most depressing you'll ever see and yet it's about an unconquerable spirit present even in our children.

The film is the story of the Eunson family, Scottish immigrants who settle in frontier Wisconsin in the 1850s. The parents are Cameron Mitchell and Glynis Johns who then raise five children, the oldest being Rex Thompson.

All Mine To Give while showing the Eunsons and most of the rest of their neighbors as decent folks is a no frills, uncompromising look at frontier life in those days. So many diseases we've conquered now were present back then. When both Mitchell and Johns fall to them the orphaned Eunson kids are left in a terrible fix. It's up to Thompson to decide their fates.

And this is all happening at Christmas time which has made All Mine To Give a staple on TCM in December. The story is based on a true incident at the time this story is taking place. It also is strikingly similar to what happened to Herbert Hoover and his two siblings when they were orphaned.

Such fine character players as Sylvia Field, Reta Shaw, Royal Dano, Alan Hale, Jr. play some of the townspeople. All Mine To Give will pull on so many emotions at once you'll be drained with a single viewing. Filmed during the last years of RKO Studios, All Mine To Give is a flawless holiday classic with a great story and a wonderful cast to tell it.

When we were in high school and college, my sister and I used to watch this movie every time it came on TV. If it started at 3AM, we were there with our tissues! We watched it so many times, that I would start to cry even before any thing sad happens. My sister and I are trying to find a copy so we can share it with our daughters. So far I've found 14 Video stores nation-wide that still carry it, but I don't know yet if any of them will rent it to me via the mail. I'm hopeful though, because any one who has ever seen this special movie, never forgets it. I now have seven children of my own, and even though none of them have seen it, they all know the story, and the title. It's difficult to summarize ALL MINE TO GIVE, without giving the story away. If you see it once, you'll look forward to seeing it again and again. I don't think there is another movie of this type that elicits such a universal reaction from the viewers.

When my family watched this we had gotten very attached to the characters and wanted to know the whole story (today's films would have followed the tale with "So-and-so went on to do such-and-such"). Knowing that the tale is TRUE made it more powerful but unfulfilled at the end without following up. The local Wisconsin online historical societies had the best coverage of the Eunson's. The writer (who lived to be 98) is one of the grandchildren of the parents in the story.... Clark County Press usgennet.org is where I found what we wanted to know when the film 'ended'. Could be a good propaganda piece for vaccinations!

"All Mine to Give" is based on a real story, so it definitely has realism on its side. It's the story of a hard luck family living in Wisconsin during the mid-19th century. You see Mr. and Mrs. Eunson create a family and work hard to raise them until ultimately both parents die from illnesses--leaving six kids and the oldest was only 12. It is then the sad duty of this oldest boy to find homes for each of his siblings on Christmas.

If the film sounds incredibly depressing and awful, well, you'd be right. It's exceptionally made, well acted and worth seeing...but it's also the type film that might send you over the edge! It is not a film for anyone to see who's suffered a recent loss or is dealing with depression. It's definitely a film to see with Kleenex nearby. And I really did marvel at some of the child actors in this one...they were amazing. Though, once again, I should point out that this is one of the most painful films you could see....remember this when you choose to see the movie.

By the way, although I did enjoy the film and do haltingly recommend it, I was left wondering WHO created the fake eyebrows worn by Cameron Mitchell in the film. Could it have been Jim Henson?