Cette sacrée famille

Of all Cary Grant's films "Room For One More" shows what might have been had Grant taken a different road with his career and done a television show. The film plays like a well written sitcom and is very entertaining and touching in its own way. Of course, arguably the greatest movie star of all time would never have condescended to do TV...and that's how it should have been... but IF he had chosen to, here is work to show he would have become perhaps one of the greatest television stars of all time. Would you rather be remembered for being the "perfect" male or as a befuddled and decidedly overmatched father? As for myself , I would choose the former... though I am much closer to the latter.

I have been a grouchy, childless, curmudgeon for the last 30 years. OK, 40. I especially get cranky with movies of easy sentimentality and clumsy "messages", eg., about patriotism or religion or love or whatever.

So, I have no idea why I bothered to tune into this movie, (other than it featuring Cary Grant), since the listing told me everything I needed to not watch it: children, family, adoption, disabilities, etc. Once into it, however, I just had to keep watching. It surely has all sorts of sentimentality, and blatant messages about adoption and the Boy Scouts; however the writing is so wonderfully deft, and the performances (including those of the children) so perfectly understated that I was fully engaged and easily able to forgive the more obvious "message moments" such as Jane being the belle of the ball, and Jimmy-John's predictable physical and emotional transformation into an Eagle Scout.

Perhaps being a boy scout, and perhaps remembering a sister's first big dance helps to suck you in, but there are eye-stinging moments enough for anyone, such as Jane refusing her (foster)mother's kiss, and the kids in the orphanage playground stopping their noisy play to watch anxiously the visitors looking at them from the balcony.

Next Sunday I'm going to watch the golf, dammit.

If you're family enjoyed "Yours, Mine & Ours", "Father Goose", "With six You Get Eggroll", "Cheaper by the Dozen" and "The Trouble With Angels", seek this movie out on late-late night TV. It is sometimes listed under its original title "The Easy Way".

Pushover engineer Cary Grant (as George "Poppy" Rose) and pretty housewife Betsy Drake (as Anna Perrott Rose) live comfortably with their three kids, dog, and pregnant cat. Then, the couple decide to become foster parents to a couple of needy children. First, they take in disagreeable, neglected Iris Mann (as Jane Miller). Next, they bring in sullen, crippled Clifford Tatum Jr. (as James "Jimmy John" Wilson). Prepare to get your heart tugged as the kids learn to fit in with their new family, and visa versa...

If you've ever wondered how a TV situation comedy series starring Cary Grant would have played, this is your chance. Looking like a pilot for a series planned for Mr. Grant and Ms. Drake, who was his wife at the time, it's like "My Three Sons" and "Father Knows Best" meets "The Brady Bunch". In fact, "Room for One More" finally did become a series, in 1962. But, since Grant was a perennial box office attraction in theaters, there was no reason for him to do television. Watch it for the kids, they're terrific.

****** Room for One More (1/10/52) Norman Taurog ~ Cary Grant, Betsy Drake, Clifford Tatum Jr., Iris Mann

The summary tells enough of the story, so I will only say that I found this movie to be very enjoyable and entertaining!

It might draw some tears (both of joy and compassion). If you love children, or if you can simply understand the situations that concern blended family, you will most likely enjoy this movie.