A couple of weeks ago I reviewed \u201cA Tree Grows in Brooklyn\u201d and said at the time that it was Camera Girl\u2019s favorite movie.\u00a0 Well, her second favorite movie is \u201cRoom for One More.\u201d\u00a0 And years ago, as a husband, this was a cause for concern because it gave her ideas about fostering orphan children.\u00a0 Now I have great respect for folks who bring homeless children into their lives.\u00a0 It\u2019s an enormous accomplishment.\u00a0 But we were up to our elbows in family and I just thought it was too much for me<\/u>!<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, it is a very appealing movie and well worth reviewing.\u00a0 The plot revolves around George and Anna Rose (played by real life husband and wife Cary Grant and Betsy Drake).\u00a0 The Roses have three children, Teenie and Tim and their sister Trot.\u00a0 Anna lost her fourth child at birth and has wanted to adopt.\u00a0 When she goes to the orphanage the Director Miss Kenyon puts in a strong pitch to foster an older child rather than adopt an infant.\u00a0 And being a good-hearted woman, she agrees to take one of their least adoptable children, Jane.\u00a0 She\u2019s an adolescent who\u2019s been abused and has grown surly and embittered.<\/p>\n
George is dead set against the fostering even as a two-week trial and his antagonism doesn\u2019t smooth Jane\u2019s arrival.\u00a0 There are a number of incidents that flare into crises when Jane\u2019s easily offended feelings are triggered into anger by innocent remarks.\u00a0 But Anna goes above and beyond to sooth Jane and make her feel welcome and loved.\u00a0 At the end of two weeks Jane has learned to love her new home and the whole family is plunged into sadness when Miss Kenyon arrives to pick up Jane.\u00a0 As Jane says her sad but polite good byes Miss Kenyon asks where Jane\u2019s suitcase is and the camera cuts to George heading up the stairs to return Jane\u2019s suitcase to her now permanent room.<\/p>\n
Next Anna decides to adopt another problem child.\u00a0 This time the problem is an adolescent boy named Jimmy John.\u00a0 He has braces on his legs from polio and he has been back and forth between hospitals so often that he hasn\u2019t even learned how to read.\u00a0 Jimmy John is even more of a challenge than Jane.\u00a0 He has a bad temper and proceeds to sucker punch Trot while the family is driving to a vacation at the beach.\u00a0 Other incidents include Jimmy John trying to ride Tim\u2019s bicycle.\u00a0 But after falling he becomes so frustrated that he smashes the back wheel completely with his heavy steel brace.\u00a0 By the end of the vacation Anna wants to extend Jimmy John\u2019s stay with her family but George insists that the four other children \u201cvote\u201d on his fate.\u00a0 The children write down their votes and after seeing that all four say, \u201cleave\u201d Tim gives the votes to Jimmy John to read.\u00a0 But Jimmy John sadly admits he can\u2019t read.\u00a0 Overwhelmed by that revelation Tim tells Jimmy John that the decision was unanimous for him to stay.<\/p>\n
The rest of the movie chronicles the evolving happiness of Jane and Jimmy John as members of the family.\u00a0 Jimmy John battles mightily against his physical disabilities to become a boy scout and at the end of the movie he achieves his ambition to be an Eagle Scout.\u00a0 Jane wants badly to go to the school formal dance but the family hasn\u2019t the money for a formal dress until all the children tell their parents to return the Christmas gifts they just received to pay for the dress.\u00a0 But when the night of dance arrives Jane\u2019s date is \u201csick.\u201d\u00a0 Actually, it\u2019s known that his mother has ordered him not to go because she considers Jane\u2019s background too questionable. \u00a0George responds by going to the boy\u2019s house and appeals to the parents to think of the broken heart of a young girl.\u00a0 The father orders his son to go to the dance and shouts at his wife to shut up.<\/p>\n
The movie ends with George and Anna granted a night of blessed solitude while the children are staying with friends.<\/p>\n
As I\u2019m sure you can tell from my description this is a wildly sentimental movie.\u00a0 But if this doesn\u2019t terminally violate the viewer\u2019s notion of what a movie consists of, then it is also an entertaining feel-good movie.\u00a0 Seeing good intentioned adults helping neglected and troubled children and reclaiming them from loneliness is pretty bracing stuff, especially if it\u2019s done with humor and at least a little indication that problems will exist.<\/p>\n
Well, if it\u2019s good enough for Camera Girl then I\u2019ll recommend it for good-hearted women and their much suffering husbands.\u00a0 Definitely a good husband-wife date movie.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A couple of weeks ago I reviewed \u201cA Tree Grows in Brooklyn\u201d and said at the time that it was Camera Girl\u2019s favorite movie.\u00a0 Well,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[239,237],"tags":[3444,716,43,38,1355],"class_list":["post-16904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","category-reviews","tag-betsy-drake","tag-cary-grant","tag-movie-review","tag-review","tag-reviews"],"yoast_head":"\n