_**A spiritless New England town needs a shot of life and joy**_
In 1912, an optimistic orphaned girl used to poverty as the daughter of missionaries (Hayley Mills) travels to Harrington, Vermont, to live with her wealthy aunt (Jane Wyman), who “owns” the town and runs it with a joyless legalistic hand. The dispirited citizens desperately need this lil’ effervescent angel. Richard Egan plays a doctor, an ex-beau of the aunt who returns to town while Carl Malden plays the pastor seriously in need of an epiphany. Nancy Olson, Adolphe Menjou and Agnes Moorehead also have key roles.
On the surface, “Pollyanna” (1960) is a quaint family drama with a little comedy, but it’s heartwarming and tackles heavy real-life issues, particularly the crushing burden of legalism in which Christianity loses its heart and becomes a rule-oriented, lifeless religion where mere appearances are the all-and-end-all.
One of the best sequences is the menacing sermon on eternal damnation, which evokes both concern and amusement (Malden hams it up a bit), but there are several other worthy scenes. Pollyanna reminds me of this kitten we got as a gift, found near death in a game reserve. He was the happiest cat and spread love & joy to everyone, all the time. He was a gift from God, a veritable walking miracle.
The film runs 2 hours, 14 minutes and was shot in Southern Cal: Aunt Polly’s mansion was located in Santa Rosa, the Bazaar sequences were done at Universal City and the railroad station scenes were shot in St Helena; other locations are Calistoga, Petaluma and Disney Studios, Burbank.
GRADE: A-/B+
Forty years after Mary Pickford made her successful version of Pollyanna, based on the children’s book and a play, Walt Disney turned his creative team to the task. Unless you are a fan or a student of silent movies, you will probably find this newer version more entertaining.
Hayley Mills shines as the cheerful child who teaches an entire town to play the optimistic aGlad Game, and she is bubbly and cute enough to pull it off. I enjoyed the humor and the pace of the story. Not a lot was left off, as it was in the short one hour long silent film.
Disney films always find great character actors, it seems. My favorites among the supporting cast was Mary Grace Canfield as Angelica and Agnes Morehead as Mrs. Snow. The scenes showing the improvement of Mrs. Snow’s outlook on life were patient and earned the heartwarming feeling they produced.
I found it interesting that the movie had a sentimental ending as you would expect, but it didn’t quite tie it all up in a bow as you usually find in a Disney movie, and indeed as was done in the Masterpiece Theater PBS version done forty years after this one.
