It Happens Every Thursday

In Loretta Young's final big screen film there are so many familiar and wonderful character players you would think this came from Frank Capra. A few in It Happens Every Spring are Capra veterans.

Loretta and her husband John Forsythe are newspaper people and they work at different papers on different shifts. It's quite a pressure filled atmosphere so Forsythe and Young decide to use their savings and buy a small town weekly newspaper.

The usual problems of city folk adjusting to small town living and small town news stories are in her. The biggest item on people's minds is the drought the community is suffering. Forsythe tries to do something about it and ends up in a public relations jackpot.

This is a pleasant piece of entertainment so reminiscent of some of the Frank Capra classics. Young picked a good one as her farewell to the big screen.

Most newspaper men and women who worked in the 20th century would probably be quick to catch the title of this film. "It Happens Every Thursday" refers to the getting out of a weekly newspaper. Even well into the 21st century, the U.S. alone had some 7,000 non-daily newspapers. Most of these are weekly, although a few publish two or three times per week.

At one time around the middle of the 20th century, it was common for harried news reporters on big city papers to dream about having their own small town weekly paper where they could settle down and raise their family in peace. Or, so the dream life seemed. This movie gives a good look at what that life could really be like.

Loretta Young and John Forsythe star as the couple who take their family from the big city to a small town to own and run their own paper. The film shows the challenges of running a small town paper, and of new owners struggling to make it work.

In this case, a strong love between the couple, and their growing family, add to a plot that mixes some comedy with drama. The film has a fine supporting cast. It's an enjoyable film that's suitable for the whole family. However, some modern audiences may find it slow.

Here are a couple favorite lines from the film.

Jane MacAvoy, "And Mrs. Spatch." Mrs. Eva Spatch, "Huh?" Jane, "I don't know what I would've done without you." Mrs. Spatch, "Ah, child. You see, the trouble with you is you were raised in a big city. You wanted something; you just called up and got it. Well, around here there's not so many of us. So, whoever can, does."

Bob MacAvoy and Jane pass each other as he rushes out to lead a Boy Scout meeting. Bob says, "I love you." Jane MacAvoy, "Scout's honor?" Bob, holding up three fingers, "Scout's honor."

This is a charming film made back when films could be made just to be charming. It is the story of a big city couple that move to a small town to run the little weekly paper there. They find that their big city way of thinking can get them in trouble with small town minds and mores! I especially liked their photo file; when they wanted a picture of an arrogant citizen the only one on file was of him as a baby-naked on a bearskin rug! This film is another that I would love to see restored and made available on DVD.

As a long-time and former journalist, I was hooked early when a character bought a copy of the magazine "Editor & Publisher," the bible of the newspaper industry -- or it was then. And was into the many years of my being in the industry. (I even wrote an article for it.) But it might not even exist now, since newspapers themselves are dying like the proverbial flies, or cutting days of publication from seven to as few as three.

What the magazine-buying character found was an ad selling a small-town weekly, the owning of which, at one time, was many a journalist's dream.

And, for some, maybe for many, the dream still exists, although it is probably more difficult now to make a living with such a publication.

Many of the difficulties shown in this movie are drawn from real life. People will not subscribe. People will not advertise.

But they by gosh expect to have their stories covered, their clubs, their sewing circles, their engagements and weddings, their schools, their churches. "And be sure to spell my name right this time: It's 'D-O-W.' With a 'D' and not a 'C.' "

(I once misspelled "Raul" as "Raoul," French vs. the correct Spanish. First rule: ASK the spelling, especially names.)

When a farmer complained about no coverage for the drought, he expressed a valid complaint. With an almost non-existent staff, a paper might not be able to cover much outside the nearest neighborhoods around the paper's office.

The editor's response here is rather extreme, even for California, and takes the story out of the mundane.

The cast in this Universal Picture is top of the line, and they are handed some excellent well-written dialogue.

I highly recommend "It Happens Every Thursday," a very good copy of which is available at YouTube.

"It Happens Every Thursday" is a pleasant but undistinguished film. It's a shame, as it turned out to be Loretta Young's last movie and after a long career, you would have hoped it would have ended on a higher note than this.

The set-up for this film makes no sense...though it certainly isn't without precedent. Much like in films like "George Washington Slept Here", "The Egg and I" and "Mr. Blandings Builds a Dreamhouse", the film is about some city folk giving up everything and moving to the country. However, compared to the boobs in these other films, the characters in "It Happens Every Thursday" seem to have a lot less motivation and their move is much more inexplicable. Think about it....two New Yorkers with no experience in the newspaper business use all their savings to buy a tiny paper in a tiny country town. Why? Well, we really have no idea--and this is the biggest weakness of the film.

Fortunately, apart from this HUGE plot hole, the rest of the picture is pleasant and modestly entertaining as the couple (John Forsythe and Young) try their darnedest to make a go of it. It's less a comedy...and more a slice of life. The actors in this (and the supporting cast is quite good) try their best but the picture never really rises above mediocrity.