The Girls of Huntington House

I very much enjoyed this touching TV melodrama about a bustling maternity home for unwed, teenage mothers-to-be and their new, kindly, somewhat oversensitive English teacher Miss Baldwin (Shirley Jones). A well-written, soulful, thought-provoking story that is given additional zip by the quality of its believable performances. I must say, The Girls of Huntington House really does have an exemplary cast: Sissy Spacek, Mercedes McCambridge, Shirley Jones, and pretty Pamela Sue Martin. Unsurprisingly, the effervescent Spacek is quite lovely as the spirited folksy songbird Sarah. Earnest, quirky, saccharine-free, and pleasingly lachrymose at times, there's something about this vintage Lorimar production that I found curiously soothing.

Shirley Jones plays the new English teacher at a maternity house for pregnant, unwed teenage girls in this well-meaning ABC-TV movie-of-the-week. Jones (who was just finishing her reign as one of the coolest television moms, Shirley Partridge, on "The Partridge Family") easily slides into this melodramatic scenario, which at times feels like a reform school movie with all the inmates about to deliver. Jones has been hired by the administration despite not having her "special degree"--and yet, we never see her actually teach. Instead, director Alf Kjellin and writer Paul Savage open the film with a flurry of hysterical activity that doesn't help us get our bearings, and put their remaining interest in rebellious flower child Sissy Spacek and her determination to get the cold-fish teacher where she lives. With its TV-movie time restraint and low-end budget, the movie's dramatic impetus (the teacher learning to feel and the headstrong student making a life-changing decision) is barely allowed to bloom. Still, Spacek (who also sings and plays the guitar) gives a solid performance; her character isn't particularly likable or sympathetic, yet the actress is full of vitality and cynical wisdom, along with a youthful Mother Earth quality that makes her line-readings wry and ironic. Jones gives the movie its foundation, but Spacek gives it a driving force of personality. It's too bad the narrative is squashed and the individual scenes are not allowed to build, causing Pamela Sue Martin, Tina Andrews and the other girls to look like also-rans.

This is a really beautiful movie about a home and school for young unwed mothers and a teacher who becomes too involved with her students. Sissy Spacek is my favorite actress, and here she stars as a young pregnant, determined to follow her heart and run her own life. She soon is confronted with a new teacher, portrayed by Shirley Jones, and totally disagrees with the lifestyle of the mature woman, stating her as being emotionally crippled. It´s very moving to witness the fights and discussions of the two strong characters, who, no matter how different their points of view, slowly grow to become friends. Although at times it is too obvious this was "only" made for TV, it still is a touching and sweet little film.