A Really Important Person

Dean Stockwell is trying to write a school essay on an important person. He thinks he's settled on John Paul Jones, but nothing will come. Someone suggests that important people are all around, so he goes out in search of one in this episode of John Nesbitt's THE PASSING PARADE.

It's a typical episode in the series, sentimental and concerned with the ordinary, unnoticed, forgotten things and people in the world. Here, it's Dean's father, the local beat cop.

To some, this has a definite post-war air to it, with its love of normalcy. True enough, but Nesbit had been telling such stories on the radio and in the movies for ten years by the time this came out. I guess people like things to be simple and normal.

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.

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 entry of John Nesbitt's Passing Parade deals with a young boy (Dean Stockwell with an awesome head of hair) having to write an essay on "a really important person." Who he eventually decides to write about is telegraphed immediately in the opening narration. My favorite scene was an early one with Dean in the library. He's trying his hardest to make an essay on John Paul Jones work but he just can't. Slowly the camera pulls back to reveal a bald old man (Chick York) sitting next to him. The old man says "What's the matter? Don't you like great men of the 18th century?" I have to admit I burst out laughing at this odd scene. It goes on and the old man convinces Dean to look closer to home for important people. This is a charming old short with some moments that are funnier now than they were intended at the time. Stockwell was an excellent child actor. One of the best. It's also nice to see the great Connie Gilchrist as his mother. Oh, and the old man appears again at the essay reading. He smiles and nods happily as he hears the words he told the boy read aloud. Yes, again I laughed. Overall, it's a pleasant ten minutes so check it out if you get the chance.

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.