Annie Was a Wonder

Kathleen Freeman was unrecognizable as Annie Swenson, a Swedish immigrant who had become hired by a family. At first, she creates a terrible impression on the parents when their sons are playing around with her and she turned the hose on them too. Still, Freeman was wonderful in her role and stole the short film.

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.

This one reel short subject was the debut of beloved character actress Kathleen Freeman in which she plays Swedish immigrant Annie, who hires out as domestic help for what we would consider really pittance wages of $15.00 a week. For that she put in an 84 hour work week. It's bad enough, but you also have to remember she's live in help as well and her room and board are free.

As Annie, all the brassiness that characterized Kathleen Freeman's screen persona is all there. The charm is there too as she wins her place in the affections of the family that hired her. Her good Swedish cooking helps in that department.

Kathleen Freeman worked steady on the big and small screen from this point on right up to her death in 2001. I'm not sure she ever starred in anything other than this short subject from John Nesbitt's Passing Parade Series. Yet this particular short was an Oscar winner in 1948 and the reason for it is Kathleen Freeman.

She went places and we the audience are all the better for it.

Kathleen Freeman was an actress who seemed to have been in practically everything over the years--ranging from playing a semi-regular on "Hogan's Heroes" to a "Naked Gun" film to "The Magnetic Monster" to "The Dick Van Dyke Show". She was one of those faces you instantly recognize but whose name you don't recall and her IMDb credits run to almost 300 entries! Freeman plays Annie Swenson--a Swedish immigrant who comes to work for the narrator's family in the early 20th century. It seems that a lot of single foreign women came to the US that way--and they worked incredibly hard as domestics to support themselves. As such, the film is like a tribute to these women and both a nice history lesson AND a sweet little short film. See the film and you'll know what I mean--it's very well made and easy to like.

One of the many one reel films that Turner Classic Movies is prone to show in between full-length films, ANNIE WAS A WONDER is one of the many shorts narrated by John Nesbitt featuring the film debut of Kathleen Freeman, best known for her much later movie and TV career even though she acted all throughout the 50s, 60s, and 70s. She plays Swedish immigrant Annie Svenson who comes to the US and works a maid for an affluent family, and slowly forges a life of her own while retaining her own identity as a person. This is a simple production which manages to convey a cute clash of a foreign culture with Americana with essentially apt performances.