Journey for Margaret

"Journey for Margaret" is a propaganda film but with a twist. Made in 1942, right after the U.S. entered World War II, it's based on a real story. A reporter, John Davis (Robert Young), and his wife Nora(Laraine Day) are caught in London during the blitz. Nora loses the baby she is carrying and eventually goes home to the states. John stays, but the passion that made him a powerful writer is gone. He's seen too much hopelessness and futility. While working an air raid, he helps to save a little boy, Peter, from a home where the rest of the family is killed. It leaves an indelible impression on him.

John meets Peter again when he visits an orphanage run by Trudy Strauss (Fay Bainter). There he also meets a very traumatized little girl, Margaret (Margaret O'Brien). Peter and Margaret bond with John. When it comes time for him to leave England, he wants to bring them with him to the states and adopt them. But all the flights to Lisbon are full for months in advance, and the only way he can bring them is to bring them as his 40 pound luggage limit. So that means only one child can go with him.

This is a really interesting film with excellent acting from everyone. Young gives a heartfelt performance, and Day is very touching as his wife. Margaret O'Brien, even at age 4 or 5, was capable of strong emotional acting.

Wonderful story.

I accidently came across this movie while channel surfing. I was stuck in my seat, it has the old time romance, but through all the softness it seems to show you the horrors of war through a child's eyes. It was one of those movies you wish would never end.

Margaret O'Brien did her first starring role in this film after only a bit part in Babes On Broadway. In fact in Journey For Margaret her troubles during wartime are the whole basis for the film.

She's not alone in her troubles, World War II left a lot of British and other children orphans. Newspaper correspondent Robert Young rescues young Margaret from a bombed out building during the London blitz. But unfortunately the experience leaves her an orphan.

A short time later Young is sent up north to a residence for war orphans and wouldn't you know it he meets up with Margaret along with the woman who runs the home, Fay Bainter. Of course a bond develops between Young and O'Brien.

Young's grieving as well, he and wife Laraine Day lost their unborn child during a bombing attack. Day's also suffered some post traumatic stress as a result and is in real danger of going off the deep end permanently. And still another orphan William Severn also manages to charm Young as well.

If this isn't enough plot ingredients for a real ten towel weeper than you have the soul of Medusa. There was tragedy behind the camera as well because director Woody Van Dyke was dying of cancer as he made this film. He would take his own life after completing Journey For Margaret.

Any committed film-goer knows exactly where this plot is headed. But the players are all capable enough and Journey For Margaret will still draw some tears from the most hard hearted of audiences.

... and unfortunately W. S. Van Dyke's swan song as a director, dying in 1943.

Robert Young was a great every man. You could just slip him into any non villainous role and he would be at least serviceable. And being serviceable works to his advantage here since his character, foreign correspondent John Davis, is meant to be a sympathetic place holder so as not to detract from the real attraction - the children at Trudy Strauss' home for war orphans. The back story is that John is looking for stories and helping out during raids in 1940 London when his pregnant wife (Larraine Day) is injured in one of them and as a result can no longer have children.

John and his wife, after the tragedy, become the eat, drink, and be merry type with an extra helping of drink, refusing to acknowledge their loss. Day's character decides to go back to the US, and afterwards, that is when John finds the orphanage. But these are no ordinary orphans. This is where things become weird for the modern viewer. Because it is obvious that what this film really needs is a touch of the sci-fi - for a therapist from after 1990 to come to 1940 London and treat all of these people for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder which they all have and which won't be recognized as a mental disorder for another 50 years.

The children will just scream out for seemingly no reason, O'Brien's character just wants to cry hysterically at times and be held. Other times, all is normal. It is insinuated that she has been beaten and returned by several foster families because she does this. So after a time, John becomes fond of both Margaret and Peter, a little boy he rescued earlier in a raid and who was orphaned by it. The children crave the stability they lost and John comes to represent that stability. So how can John adopt these kids and get his wife to snap out of her denial? And how exactly DO you safely transport two kids across the ocean in the middle of a war?

There are some odd and interesting things going on here. This Japanese diplomat keeps appearing and saying he must get to Washington by December (1941?). It seems to be played as a joke. Did wartime audiences find this funny after Pearl Harbor? Then there is the way that the orphanage decides between two children when only one can be adopted - an intelligence test? I never could figure if this was a law or just a bad idea.

Margaret O'Brien is very convincing for a five year old actress. She's not just a cute little waif, she genuinely projects the range of emotions required of her performance. Fay Bainter seems to excel at playing women who run orphanages. And Laraine Day as an American during the London blitz... Was I the only person who expected her husband to find a bunch of stolen jewels in the rubble? Well THAT is another movie entirely.

"Journey For Margaret" was one of the best movies regarding WWII I have ever seen. Did you know this was based on a true story? I read it in an old Readers Digest, and the original tale is much sadder as because of wartime regulations, only Margaret can be adopted and taken back to America. However, there is no way that ending would have played in 1942! Robert Young and Laraine Day, overlooked so often when discussing MGM/old Hollywood stars, really portray the pathos of would-be parents losing, then gaining their chance of parenthood. Don't miss this flick when it next plays on Turner Classic!