Family Fun Saturday - Summer Magic

Disney, 1963
Starring Haley Mills, Dorothy McGuire, Burl Ives, and Deborah Walley
Directed by James Neilson
Music and Lyrics by Richard and Robert Sherman

This was the musical I originally planned on reviewing Thursday night in honor of the summer season coming to a close. I'll use it to inaugurate Family Fun Saturday instead. On some Saturdays, instead of reviewing an animated film, I'll cover a live-action musical that your whole family can enjoy. We're heading to Maine in the 1910's for our first entry, one of four live-action musicals Walt Disney made in his lifetime. Is this as magical as his animated classics, or does it fizzle like a stale lemonade? Let's find out...

The Story: Nancy Carey (Mills) lives with her brothers and recently widowed mother (McGuire) in Boston in the early 1910's. She's a romantic and fanciful teen girl who never stops talking about her favorite books and her many ideas. One of those ideas is writing to the caretaker of an old house in a small town in Maine. The caretaker is Oshum Popham (Ives), the laid-back owner of the the town's general store. He's a bit surprised to see them at first, as Nancy's letter greatly exaggerated their situation, but he and his son Digby (Michael J. Pollard) and shy daughter Lallie Joy (Wendy Turner) welcome them anyway. The original owners of the house are rich people who are out of town and supposedly gave Popham carte blanche to do whatever he liked with it.

They're settling in nicely, including the huge sheepdog that little Peter (Jimmy Mathers) adopts, when they receive a message that their cousin Julia (Walley) is moving in with them. Julia is spoiled and obnoxious, constantly talking about her foster family's money and position. Her refusal to help the family fix up the house and constant arguing with Nancy doesn't help matters. Their rivalry comes to a head when handsome Charles Bryant (James Stacy) moves to town. Frilly Julia is the one who gains his favor, leading Nancy to lash out. The girls do make up from their quarrel, and Julia even agrees to help her cousin with her wardrobe.

On the day of their big Halloween party, Nancy discovers that the owner of the house (Peter Brown) has come back...and he's not entirely happy with what Popham has done or with the Careys living there. But as Osh tells his sour wife Mariah (Una Merkel), things always work out in the end...

The Song and Dance: The movie is mostly carried by Mills, who is adorable as the chatty and excitable Nancy, and Ives as good-natured, eternally optimistic Popham. McGuire also makes a warm, firm-but-gentle Mrs. Carey, and Walley is appropriately haughty as snobbish and insecure Julia. I really like Pollard's stoic Digby and wish he hadn't disappeared to Boston for most of the movie. The fine widescreen cinematography and lovely costumes ably capture rural New England of a hundred years ago. I

Favorite Number: "The Ugly Bug Ball," which Popham sings with Peter as they work on the house, is probably the best-known song from this film (thanks to it's inclusion on the old Disney Sing-A-Long Songs videos). The charming "On the Front Porch" has Ives singing with the cast on the porch of the old house. It and "Summer Magic," performed by McGuire and her children early in the film (once again on the porch), are two of the Shermans' best slower numbers. "Femininity," which has Julia and Nancy giving advice to Lallie Joy on how to win the man of her dreams, is a very cute trio that shows off the Shermans' love of playing with big words. Julia is introduced before we even meet her by the hilarious "The Pink of Perfection," which shows just how unimpressed her cousins are with her high-falutin' airs.

What I Don't Like: This isn't for people who like their musicals big, brassy, and bold. There's no noise or elaborate chorus numbers, and the story is pretty much just a small family drama. Some of the views of city slickers vs country folk and how women should behave (especially when in pursuit of the opposite sex) may look a bit dated to many viewers today.

The Big Finale: All of Disney's live-action theatrical musicals deserve more love, and this one is no exception. If you're a fan of Mills or Ives or loved other musical excursions into early 20th century nostalgia like Meet Me In St. Louis, you'll want to spend a magical summer with the Careys in Maine at the Little Yellow House, too.

Home Media: Not on Blu Ray at press time, but it is on DVD (in widescreen, a rarity for Disney's older movies) and on Amazon Prime.

DVD
Amazon Prime