A Really Important Person

This is an excellent installent in the John Nesbitt's Passing Parade series. Like most of these films, I think it would have been better without Nesbitt's narration, but it's still quite nice...if a bit schmaltzy.

Billy Reilly (Dean Stockwell) is stumped. He wants to enter a local essay contest about who he considers a really important person but he doesn't know who to pick. After listening to some advice, he decides to write about his father...a local policeman. Why he picked him is for you to see for yourself.

This is a rather sweet film. Some might find it heavyhanded and schmaltzy, but I thought it was quite nice and worth seeing.

A Really Important Person (1947)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Charming entry in the Passing Parade series has a young boy (Dean Stockwell) going to the library to do some research on an important person. The story is meant for a contest he's trying to win and after doing something wrong the boy realizes that the most important person he knows is his father. A REALLY IMPORTANT PERSON isn't a masterpiece and it's not even one of the better films in the John Nesbitt series but there's no question that it has its heart in the right place and it manages to be entertaining as long as you don't take it too serious. The main goal of this film was to send home a message to kids that you just need to look in your own neighborhood to find heroes. The message certainly comes across quite well and without too much preaching. Stockwell, a very good child actor, does a fine job here, although he's really not given too much to "act" since a lot of the film is narration. With that said, fans of the series or the actor should enjoy this film as it's a good time killer.

This simple short feature works rather well, thanks in part to a decent story and in part to Dean Stockwell as the young boy. It is the kind of morality play that can easily become cloying or dreary if not handled carefully, but in this case it comes off all right.

Stockwell plays a boy who wants to enter an essay contest, for which the subject is "A Really Important Person". The character is portrayed as a typical boy, motivated by the desire to have fun and to please his friends. Stockwell plays the part well, and makes his otherwise familiar character worth being interested in. The story is also careful not to press its points too hard. The plot is rather predictable, but that was probably more or less by design.

There is just enough to the story to make it interesting without distracting attention from its intended point. While nothing remarkable, this is a decent example of how a simple, familiar, somewhat moralistic story can communicate its point without frills.

For its predactibility . For its innocence. For the spirit of an old world. For its moral. And, sure, for Dean Stockwell. A boy. A contest. And his hero. And few details who, without be impressive, are seductive. A film about values. Nice, simple, moral. And, in special manner, seductive. That is all. For define it, not ignoring the involuntary humor and the dust, lovely. In memory of a lost age.

Surely, a better story could have evolved around a boy required to write an essay on "A Very Important Person" and choosing to name his father as recipient of the honor.

In this lackluster short, the boy suddenly decides that his hard working father (a traffic cop) is worthy of being the subject of his prize-winning essay. DEAN STOCKWELL, one of the few natural child actors, is impressive in the central role as the boy who gradually comes to realize that he doesn't have to look far for a worthy subject.

Perhaps if the father had a strong role in the proceedings, the ending might be more believable. As it is, it's a weak message delivered in a routine way by MGM. Contract player CONNIE GILCHRIST has a small role as Dean's hard-working mother.

Narrated by John Nesbitt, it's a bit pretentious and easy to skip.