Bing Crosby stars in this movie about a dysfunctional family who refuses to admit it’s dysfunctional. His character, Jordan Blake, lost his wife ten years previously and has been trying to raise his son Jerry and his daughter Barbara (played by a very young Natalie Wood) with the help of boarding schools and governesses. He himself is a big producer with eleven hit shows to his credit, and feels that all the time he has spent away from home has been worth it, for the life he’s provided for his children. What he fails to see is that they don’t want a huge house; they want a father.
Jerry is eighteen and an aspiring song writer who thinks himself a man. He has a crush on Carolina Hill, (Jane Wyman) star of his father’s show, and believes himself to be mature enough to date an older woman. What he doesn’t know is that his father and Carolina are involved and are thinking about getting married.
Barbara, in the meantime, has her sights set on attending St. Hillary’s, an exclusive finishing school for well-bred young ladies. Her drunken governess may or may not be a help to getting her in there, especially if she keeps getting Barbara arrested like she did the night Jordan’s show opened.
Jordan’s world is crumbling around him. Jerry plays him an original composition, and he can’t find anything positive to say about it, further alienating his son from him. Barbara is growing up and he doesn’t even know her. Taking Carolina’s advice to spend some time with his children, Jordan packs them all up and they head for the hills, hoping to reconnect.
This movie is full of song and dance numbers that I found largely unnecessary. You’d think that in a Bing Crosby movie, there wouldn’t be any such thing as too many song and dance numbers, but there really were. I was more interested to see Jordan come to his senses and start seeing his children as people, but he never really did, to my satisfaction. They were supposed to be content with whatever pats on the head he gave out. And then later, the conflict is resolved with absolutely no effort on his part at all.
My overall analysis: I had high hopes for this movie and they fell a little flat. It’s not a terrible way to spend an evening but if you could be doing something more useful, like cleaning out your lint screen or sorting your socks, you’d probably better opt for that as a better use of your time.
Related Blogs:
Christmas Music and Motivation