When I Grow Up

I saw this film by accident. It was a second, unbilled, feature at a Saturday matinee I attended when I was 9. I have no idea, now, what that first feature was, but this movie took me in and moved me in a way that had never happened before. Laughed before, yes. Been scared of course! Hid my eyes and left the theater peering ahead at dark corners and the spaces between streetlights.

With this film, however, for the first time (and not the last), I found myself crying in a theater. I am certain, now, I wasn't in tears for the people in the film, but for my own life and at the way I had always responded to my grandfather. The movie -- dare I say this -- held a mirror to the reality I knew as a well cared-for middle-class kid in a small eastern town at mid-century and let me know that I, too, would some day grow up, grow old, come to know sorrow and, one day, die.

Soon, very soon after this, I encountered Citizen Cane on late night television and all things changed again. But this little film opened me up to the power and potential that movies can have toward making people see, understand and feel.

I have been looking for this movie for 47 years. At times I thought I had the wrong title. I only saw the movie once but it influenced my thinking then and still today. I saw myself as Josh/Danny Reed. It was like looking into a mirror. I changed my attitude toward my relationship with peers, younger and older persons. I learned to treat people with respect and expect respect when deserved.

I have never been able to forget this movie. I was 7 or 8 years old when I saw it. I stayed all day on that Saturday, which was matinée day at the local theater 2 blocks from my home and saw it several times in that one day I was allowed to go to the movies. It was the first movie that made me feel part of it. My most memorable moment was when he was reading and making his own diary and attempting to spell words which were only sounds. Sounds he made with his mouth and a slap or finger popping in and out of his cheek. There was as definite connection for me with Bobby Driscoll in that movie. I felt like his personal friend and peeking in on his life, giving my the feeling of the love I had for my own. I only wish I knew where I could obtain that movie on DVD or VHS, for to me, it is truly a classic. I'm now 63 years old, and when looking at photos of Bobby back then, I become that 7/8 year old boy for just a moment. I can't believe I have found this information on this site, to bring back such a wonderful time in my life.

I saw "When I Grow Up" 40 years ago, have not only been looking for it ever since, but have also tried in vain to find anyone else in the world who has even heard of it. Even now, I can't tell the story line of the film without holding back tears when I get to the "Mom, where's Dad?" scene when Bobby Driscoll finally comes out of his fever coma.

Like the boy in the film, I also never achieved the going fishing relationship with my father that the film symbolizes. But I thought I would, "maybe next week or the month after that." And when my father died, "When I Grow Up" was one of the first things I thought of as having been a reminder or a warning that I hadn't heeded soon enough.

But when my own son was born, I remembered it and I heeded it. And the message of "When I Grow Up" was with my son and me all of the days of my Brandon's childhood. With a little luck, in a few years I'll be the grandfather responding to my grandson, "You know, I can't think of anything I'd rather do" when he says to me "Hey, Grandpa. Let's go fishing."

when i read the review by "meister-5" of kansas, city, missouri, regarding this motion picture, i thought i had written it. it is so sad that such an influential work has not made it to vcr and sold/rented on the marketplace. what a shame. the storyline is excellent and the acting is fabulous. it is clean and it impacted my life very similarly to that of your commenter "meister-5". i appreciate the info provided by imdb!