Reunion

The invitations go out far and wide, throughout Canada and the United States. Doctor Jean Hersholt is retiring after delivering 3000 babies. All of them are invited to a party in his honor.

Of course, the real star of this movie are the Dionne Quintuplets, but the other 2,995 others have stories of their own, and this one tells several of them in fictional Moose Port in Canada. The Quints show up in to bits, early on, when everyone watches raptly while they behave like five little girls, and later on at the party, where they also behave like five little girls. Large parts of the production were moved up to Callander, Ontario to accommodate these busy celebrities.

But they take up only about six minutes of this 80-minute movie. The rest is composed of Hersholt solving the problems of many of the children he delivered. Alan Dinehart is the governor of a state, but has never had a child of his own; Esther Ralston's movie career has fizzled out, and she's broke. Hersholt's nephew, Robert Kent, is in love with Hersholt's nurse, Rochelle Hudson, but feels obligated to Helen Vinson, who, who wants to leave her husband for him. Can Hersholt solve all their problems?

In many ways, this set the tone for Hersholt's DR. CHRISTIAN series on radio, television, and in the movies, through his death in 1956 at the age of 69.

There are lots of other well known players on view here. Montagu Love is a standout in a rare comedy role.

I saw part of this film at the Callander Bay Heritage Museum. The little Dionne girls are so adorable..it was so sad what happened to them. They speak French mostly, so it was hard to understand them. I thought of the doctors and nurses as evil because in the film, when the girls were brought puppies..they squealed and ran away like little aliens. It was so sad. But this film is GREAT! Mostly because I love the Dionne Quints, I would recommend viewing this piece of history. Yvonne, Annette, Cecile, Emilie, and Marie Dionne are frolicking in the yard most of the movie. It is so cute to watch five alike girls playing around. But it is kind of sad to see them treated like zoo creatures and gawked at by the public. If you like the quints you would surely love this movie..and thats all I guess!