80 Steps to Jonah

About twice a year they'd pack us into the gym on folding chairs and show us a movie. The only one that stuck in my mind was "80 Steps to Jonah." Every kid loved it, and universally declared it to be the best movie we'd ever seen.

Was it really that good? Who knows? I've not seen it since then. But if you're looking for something to watch with kids in the middle-school age range, this one's a good bet.

I uploaded my full recording of 80 Steps To Jonah at google video...

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3888172006497514701 Shows up in flash player at that link but if you click the download link you'll get a much clearer mp4 version (330MB)

I put it on my computer from an old VHS tape recording when I saw it years ago on TV. Then I converted it to wmv and mp4 formats for viewing.

Also have some musical scene clips from the movie up at you tube. Includes the scenes where Wayne Newton & kids sing With A Little Seed And Some Love. Also Wayne Newton playing guitar and singing If I Could Be To You What You Are To Me. And scene where Wayne's music is 'Night Rushes In'

I feel that there was excellent casting in this picture. Wayne Newton handled the lead quite well - he played it with heart, but resisted the temptation to make it overly sentimental. Not afraid of being upstaged by animals or children, he worked well with them to tell us a beautiful story. Brought to the foreground was how independent people with disabilities can really be. The music, too, was a definite plus!

I remember this as a dog of a movie that played on a late-evening flight from O'Hare to San Francisco in January, 1969. Wayne Newton was awful. I saw that he was in a car accident and that he ran away from the police, for some reason. After a bit, I went to sleep, only waking up when Mickey Rooney wandered through to save Newton and a happy ending.

This afternoon, something itched in my brain, so I went looking on IMDB for a Mickey Rooney movie. This is it. I almost never walk out of movies, I would have walked out of this if the exit had not been about 30,000 feet up.

I watched this movie when I was about 12 years old. I was spending the night with my Grandmother in the late 70's and we happened to be up late talking. This movie came on the late night movie and it has stuck in my memory. My Grandmother and I both loved this movie and we went through many tissues. My Grandmother passed away about 8 year ago and one of my many fondest memories with her was the night we watched this movie together. I would love to see this movie again. I have only saw it once and it made a great impact on me. Any recomendations to where I may be able to rent it would be greatly appreciated. I would definitely rate this a must see movie. (They don't make em' like this anymore.)