The Next Voice You Hear...

This is an amazing piece of 1950 Americana with a nice father, nice mother, nice son, nice people who believe in God and care about having decent morals - a far cry from films in the past 40 years.

The story, acting and photography is okay but nothing exceptional. Today, it would bore 95 percent of the viewing audience. The main appeal is simply its homage to an innocent age (if there ever was one!).

This was my first look, when I first saw this VHS about 15 years ago, at Nancy Davis, who became Nancy Reagan. I was surprised to see how plain her looks were. She didn't look as pretty and elegant as she did as an older woman, as the First Lady.....but that has nothing to do with this film, so bear with my senility.

The story, without spoiling it, is simply about people who hear God talking through the radio to them, trying to get them to think about things. Theology- wise, the movie is pretty vague and general, not wanting to offend anyone but it still had a good message. This is almost a curiosity piece.

God's voice is "The Next Voice You Hear," in a 1950 film starring James Whitmore, Nancy Davis, Gary Gray, and Tom D'Andrea. I saw this movie many, many years ago, and have read of it in recent years due in large part to the presence of our future First Lady. Nancy Davis was an attractive woman and a good actress - I'm certain she could be quite pretty and glamorous as in real life, but the film world cast her differently. Here she's very plain looking, with a pretty smile, and is supposed to have a baby due any second. In true Hollywood form, she looks like she's maybe three months along.

The story concerns that typical '50s family we saw on TV and read about though probably didn't live in - mom, dad, and a cute kid - who have different reactions when God starts speaking on the radio at 8:30 every evening. The Whitmore character seems to embrace its true spirit - let go and live - while his aunt's belief is fear-based, and his wife and child become frightened.

This is a lovely, simple story that some people will find very comforting and others will think is an annoying, preachy bore. I thought the acting somewhat lifted it. James Whitmore was the new Spencer Tracy but never rose above character roles; instead, even now, he enjoys a wonderful stage career. Here he's a man who gets hot and bothered over life's annoyances, hates his boss, but gradually learns a lesson about God's true message. The other performances are good, and the little boy is too cute for words. Always nice to see "Gillis" from "The Life of Riley," Tom D'Andrea, in a role.

This movie isn't for everyone, but if you have a spiritual leaning, you'll like it.

What can you say about a movie that opens by insisting that a guy named Joe Smith is an American. Like maybe we're going to think he's French or maybe Chinese. Actually, the best part of this genuine movie oddity are the parts showing how the Smith's are in fact a typical American family.

For example, note the several amusing little episodes that could be expected from a typical day in 1950's suburbia. Dad (Whitmore) mutters the whole time he's getting not one, but two traffic tickets for wrestling with his balky old car. Or young Johnny's (Gray) perfect pantomime of Dad's all-too-predictable motions starting up that balky car. Or Dad's explaining to bemused neighbors why he's doing junior's paper route and getting it wrong. Now these are the kind of homespun little episodes that Hollywood never had much time for. But here they're both telling and skillfully done. Ditto other telling aspects, such as the locker room byplay at the factory where Dad works. Or Mom's (Davis) wrestling with her very expectant condition.

Now, had the film developed a story around these type episodes, we might have had an amusing little programmer to fill a slow Sunday evening. But this is, after all, 1950, and communism is on the apparent march in Korea, while McCarthyism is aiming at lefty screenwriters in Hollywood. So what we get instead of a programmer is something like Pat Robertson meets The Twilight Zone. After all, when we turned on the radio in those days, we expected maybe the voice of Edward R. Murrow, but certainly not—dare it be said—the voice of The Big Guy Himself. It's as though Robertson had finally arranged it. Wisely, of course, we never hear the actual divine voice, rather the messages are repeated to us by the various characters.

So what we get instead of the usual Hollywood product is a scarcely veiled religious parable. But not an ordinary one. Instead, it's a combination of Creation and The Second Coming all rolled into one b&w movie. And in case we don't get the meaning, Creation is conveyed by the portentious countdown going from The First Day to The Seventh Day, while a Second Coming is signaled by the child born in humble surroundings to Joseph and Mary Smith. At the same time, even Satan puts in a surrogate appearance in the form of Mitch, Joe's wartime buddy, who tempts him with drink and loose women when Joe should be home with wife and family.

So what's the point of this darn heavy load where God actually speaks and the Bible's big events are replicated in—of all places—1950's suburbia. Looks to me like Hollywood got caught up in the emerging Cold War, so MGM decided to enlist God and the Bible on our side. After all, the struggle is against the godless commies. And what better way to show them who's boss than having The Big Guy Himself put in an appearance.

Now, that Cold War conjecture makes a lot of sense given the time frame. But consider what God's message boils down to according to the movie. It's something like, "Do your homework and be nice to one another". Okay, sure, but who could be against that. I'll bet even the bad old Soviets, or the Humanists, or other assorted skeptics would agree with such a soft message. So why do we need God or MGM's screenwriters to tell us something so obvious.

Well, consider again Hollywood and the emerging Cold War with the Soviet bloc. Now that congressional hearings have exposed so many com-symps in their midst, the industry needs a more patriotic image. So what better way to demonstrate patriotic loyalty than to cozy up to a dominant Christianity that feels threatened by the spread of atheistic Marxism.

But certainly the message can't be done in a way that offends other religions or potential allies. So if God speaks, it's got to be general enough to offend no one. But, at the same time, the message should also reference Christian belief if only in a covert way. Looks to me like the writers met the first challenge with the platitude to be nice to others, and the second with the directive about homework, which in context really means to go back and read the Bible. Maybe that combination seems awkward and a little sophomoric, especially coming from God, but it does solve the script's most urgent problem.

Of course, much of this is conjecture on my part. Nonetheless, the movie's a really weird mix, which encourages some type of explanation.

The film itself is not as bad as I expected. Most importantly, it doesn't overload with smarm, always a risk for religiously themed movies. Wisely too, the screenplay avoids any specific mention of Cold War politics, relying instead on apparent moral rearmament to meet the Soviet challenge. Then too, Whitmore and Davis, along with Gray, make a very ordinary, unHollywood type family, appropriate for the purpose. Also, I can't help noticing head production honcho Dore Schary produced the film and brought prestige director William Wellman on board to direct. This suggests the production was not viewed as just another low-budget b&w.

Okay, so maybe we didn't get the new age the movie's big events portend. Still, the movie's a really strange one-of-a-kind that should be seen if only for curiosity's sake.

Funny how James Whitmore resembles Spencer Tracy! He is ideally cast as the guy-next-door with his sweet wife and their lovable little boy.

"Next voice you hear" is one of Wellman's weirdest movies ,but he had already displayed his faith in God :for instance ,Carl the sailor in "Safe in hell" (what a title!) tells her love Gilda that He did help them (and He did in a way).

The good idea is that we (the audience) never hear HIS voice :it's all in reported speech .There's nothing spectacular,no end -of -the world-trick (although mom hints at Orson Welles and his "war of the worlds"),just every day life and the fact that God speaks to the world using the different languages .

Mrs Smith is expecting a child ;the boy seems to be afraid of losing his mom to his new brother/sister;the father wants to go to confession.And on the seventh day...

Like this?try this....

"Teorema" Pier Paolo Pasolini 1968

This is an unusual picture. The idea of God speaking to the whole world over the radio, is sure to provoke conversation. Whitmore is great(as always!)as the average 'joe', just too busy to stop and consider what he is really doing in his life/with his family and friends. Considering this one was made during the height of the cold-war, I'm sure it reflects the fears and anxieties of the times. Know what? It's just as timely now.