Spring Reunion

There are so many ways to approach a film: on cinematic terms alone, like "great film" or "average film" or "B-Minus" etc.

There are films that have flaws but have virtues. This is one of them.

I know it's a B-film from the 50s, when Betty Hutton and Dana Andrews were past their prime.

But: for those who like those actors professionally and as people, there are lovely virtues that are unique.

I LOVE Betty Hutton in her bombshell, younger days - when she was on fire - a firecracker who couldn't stand still -notably in one of my favorites, Miracle of Morgan's Creek.

And I really like Dana Andrews for his understated performances, especially in The Best Years of Our Lives.

And while most of Dana Andrews 50s films are pretty uninteresting, I loved the pairing between him and Betty. They are both vulnerable, in their professional life journey more vulnerable to the downward trajectory. But that gives their performances immediacy and sensitivity. They are both players characters who life has battered down a bit or more - and WHO doesn't know how THAT feels - and they bring that to their roles.

I really liked when the two of them are on screen, interacting with each other. You feel their connection to each other. Both of them are very good in their maturer, vulnerable state. To me, that's a highlight of the film- to see the two of them interact.

Everything else is secondary. The schools scenes are okay. Jean Hagen, who I like, has to struggle with an ill-defined role, and does well, as always. Her jock paramour has an even more illdefined role, and is okay.

Betty's parents do okay, in dated roles - the possessive father and doting repressed mother.

Again: if you want to see mature Betty Hutton and mature Dana Andrews bring their life experience to their work, you will enjoy their on-screen duo.

The most interesting thing I found out about Spring Reunion is that Kirk Douglas produced it. He also had the good sense not to star in it. Not that it's a bad film, but Kirk's career was on the way up and the stars of Spring Reunion were on the way down.

Both Betty Hutton and Dana Andrews's careers crested during the Forties as leads in A films. In fact this would be Betty Hutton's last big screen film. Dana Andrews had slipped into the ranks of B films where he would be the rest of his career except for an occasional supporting part in a big budget film.

Betty and Dana are a pair of thirty somethings in their hometown of Carson for their Spring Reunion of the class of 1941. He was the hotshot All American voted the boy most likely to succeed and she was the most popular girl of course.

Life hasn't quite worked out as they thought it would, but as it is in these films they do find time to add to an unfinished romance. They also remember why things didn't end in marriage back in the day.

It was nice seeing a whole bunch of other talented players as various types at the reunion. People like Jean Hagen, Gordon Jones, Richard Deacon, and Herbert Anderson are always a treat.

Spring Reunion today would be a nice film for the Lifetime channel. Maybe someone there will do a remake of it sometime.

Nice little film about the ironies of life stars Betty Hutton and Dana Andrews as two former high school icons who were voted most popular and most likely to succeed. They meet 15 years later at a reunion, both unmarried and both leading aimless lives.

Hutton still lives in her hometown, partnered with her father in a real estate development firm. Even worse, she still lives at home. She graduated in 1941 and her boyfriend was killed during WW II (so was her brother) and she's never gotten her life back on track. She pours her emotions into her work.

Andrews (who broke his leg in the "big game") wanders from job to job but never seems happy or satisfied with anything. It's as if his life never recovered from the football field accident even if his leg did.

Also at the reunion are the usual types, the blowhard sports jock (Gordon Jones) who still relives his glory days, the little mother (Jean Hagen) who feels trapped by a husband and four kids, and unsuccessful guy (Herbert Anderson) hoping to sell a few used cars.

Oddest dynamic is Hutton's household, where her common-sense mother (Laura La Plante) feels estranged from her husband (Robert F. Simon) who seems fixated on his daughter as a replacement for the dead son. There's almost a sexual tension among the three adults, but since this is a 1957 movie, that is not explored.

Things come to a head when Hutton and Andrews make the snap decision to get married and daddy goes into overdrive to stop the wedding. The harder he works to sabotage the wedding, the more alarmed mother becomes. Can Hutton and Andrews withstand the interference?

1940s superstar Betty Hutton is just fine in her final film. She has a slightly shell-shocked look that fits the character. She also gets to sing a mellow rendition of "That Old Feeling." Dana Andrews is also quite good in his usual understated way. Robert F. Simon is appropriately creepy as the father, and silent film star Laura La Plante is very good (and looks great) as the mother.

Jean Hagen and Gordon Jones are fine in the minor and slightly comic subplot. There's also Irene Ryan as the high school's Miss Stapleton, and Herbert Anderson, Dorothy Newmann, Richard Deacon, and Ken Curtis among the reunion crowd.

James Gleason (billed as Jimmy) as a nice bit as a lighthouse keeper, George Chandler plays the soda jerk, Sara Berner plays the awful impressionist.

This was the final film appearance for Hutton, whose big hits included ANNIE GET YOUR GUN, THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH, INCENDIARY BLONDE, THE MIRACLE OF MORGAN'S CREEK, and THE PERILS OF PAULINE. This was also the final film for La Plante, whose big hits included SHOW BOAT, THE CAT AND THE CANARY, THE LOVE TRAP, KING OF JAZZ, and SMOULDERING FIRES.

Answer: Because she crosses her eyes when she sings.

That said, yes: Betty Hutton shows a few of the wild tics from her earlier days. But she gives a restrained, believable performance here. She looks great. We like and care about her character.

It's the fifteenth reunion of her high school class. Her old pal Jean Hagen is in town for it. She's staying with Hutton's overly protective father and her glamorous mom, Laura La Plante. Wow: These two look like sisters as much as like mother and daughter! Who does she run into but high school football hero Dana Andrews. He's a little down-at-the-heels. He works but spends most of his time working on his boat.

Andrews is also good. Hagen isn't given enough to do, which is a shame: She was a wonderful, versatile actress.

Most of the other attendees at the reunion are vaguely sketched in and uninteresting played. But Hutton and Andrews make this a very entertaining movie.

It opens with a theme song I found cloying and unappealing. This came out right before rock 'n' roll. Bigger-budget movies continued to use light music like Henry Mancini for many years after this. But if this had come out even five years later, the treacly theme song might well have been junked in favor of something by Bill Haley and the Comets.

This is not to say that the music is all bad. The song Hutton sings at the school talent show (where she crosses her eyes) is fine. And she remembers Andrews as having come on to girls in school with a recording of a Chopin nocturne. We hear that Chopin, too.

I enjoyed this movie and recommend it, not as a cinematic masterpiece but as an interestingly cast bit of movie nostalgia.

So much was riding on this film to re-invigorate Betty Hutton's film career that the "star" quality of Hutton in this "B" movie overwhelmed the production, making the actors supporting her really have to work to make their scenes memorable in any way. Most did well with the exception of Dana Andrews whose own career was all but on the way out. He is too withdrawn to have any chemistry whatsoever with Hutton who was really trying hard to reign in her own habit of dominating every scene. It's a nice script, an oft told tale of high school reunions but with a twist in that it often centered on the relationship between Hutton and her domineering father who seemed to want his little girl to ever remain a spinster. Anyone looking like Hutton made this spinster character a bit unbelievable.

Others have mentioned Hutton's "cross eyed" moment when she sings "That Old Feeling," but the truth is, she broke character and started chewing up the scenery when the tune which started slowly began to swing. Having seen Hutton in concert in Vegas I can say with certainty that this "cross-eyed" moment was Hutton on stage, not the shy spinster she was portraying. Interesting that they let her loose like that but then, that was Hutton. She never failed to dominate the screen when she lit into a song. I loved it. It was the last song she would ever sing in a film and thank God she gave it the Hutton touch. It may have been the highlight of the film.

Anyone interested in Hutton's career must see this film because it shows her in a more mature mode and she has a bang up scene with the actor playing her father near the end. This should have led to more roles but her own emotional problems began to surface around town and she never made another film. Too bad. Really, too bad.