Annie Was a Wonder

An MGM JOHN NESBITT'S PASSING PARADE Short Subject

Our Swedish hired girl ANNIE WAS A WONDER in those long ago days before the First World War.

This Oscar-nominated gem is a tribute to the European women who came to America looking for work - $15 a month, 84 hours a week, 14 hours a day - in the years preceding World War One. Warmhearted & utterly charming, it is also a showcase for character actress Kathleen Freeman (1919-2001), starring as Annie Swenson. A talented performer of stage, screen and television, Miss Freeman continued to entertain audiences right up until her death at age 82.

Often overlooked or neglected today, the one and two-reel short subjects were useful to the Studios as important training grounds for new or burgeoning talents, both in front & behind the camera. The dynamics for creating a successful short subject was completely different from that of a feature length film, something akin to writing a topnotch short story rather than a novel. Economical to produce in terms of both budget & schedule and capable of portraying a wide range of material, short subjects were the perfect complement to the Studios' feature films.

I always think of KATHLEEN FREEMAN as Miss Dinsmore, the vocal coach for Jean Hagen in the hilarious SINGIN' IN THE RAIN. Actually she had numerous TV and film credits to her name for a long period of time beginning in the late '40s, but this is her only starring role in a John Nesbitt "Passing Parade" short about immigrant hired girls from Europe.

Freeman is Annie Swenson from Sweden, who doesn't pass the test as maid to an American household until the dad gets a taste of her cooking. As the narrator says, from then on she "conquers the father through the stomach" with some good Swedish recipes.

"I guess I don't send for my trunk, yes?" she asks in her Swedish accented voice.

She becomes a dear member of the family and eventually marries and has to say her good-byes to the family that took her in as a maid, starting at 84 hours a week, room and board, for $15 a month.

A nice look back at a time that doesn't exist any longer with a fine performance from Freeman in this Oscar-nominated short from MGM.

Kathleen Freeman plays Anna, a Swedish immigrant who worked as a housekeeper for John Nesbitt's family in the long ago days. It's from the last year of MGM THE PASSING PARADE, a series that Nesbitt had been performing, on radio, in the movies, and later on television, since the middle of the 1930s.

It's a story of America, with the foreigner of today becoming the solid American several decades later.

It's a rebuke to the know-nothing, anti-Foreign impulse that so often afflicts people. I speak from experience. My paternal grandparents came from Europe about a century ago, finding work as, respectively, a hat maker and a scrub woman.

It's a shame that John Nesbitt's stories aren't shown more often... I caught this one on TCM's "One Reel Wonders" segment, along with "Our old Car". His stories really show what it was like at the beginning of the 20th century. I hope someone does the same for our era.

I quite enjoyed this jolly depiction of the narrator's young life with Swedish housekeeper Annie (Kathleen Freeman). Right from day one, she isn't about to be played pranks upon by the brothers, but by joining in their hosepipe game risks a swift termination of her fortnight's trial. Luckily, she came top of the class at her cookery school and anyone who has ever tasted Swedish cuisine will know that when it is done well it is certainly not one for the calorie counter. Studying for her citizenship qualification and befriending the local delivery man she spends the next few years gradually becoming an integral part of a family that worked her to the bone, but clearly cared a lot for her too. Freeman is clearly enjoying her role here and though perhaps the Nesbitt's might genuinely want to feel some guilt for their exploitation for $15 a month, it's one of the cheerier stories of the American dream working out for someone conflicted between her homeland of old and her new land of opportunity.