A really enjoyable family film. It is a 20th Century Fox vehicle for Peggy
Ann Garner who is billed above Randolph Scott and Lynn Bari. They were hoping
she would be the next big thing among child stars. Since I would guess no
one reading this has heard of her it clearly didn't work out as planned,
But she already had two well-known films under her belt - she played Jane
Eyre as a child in Jane Eyre with Orson Welles and was the young daughter
in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. She was in a few other good films but
by 1949 she was in Bomba, the Jungle Boy and basically left Hollywood soon
after for the stage. She doesn't sing and she wasn't particularly cute in
that cutesy way but she is a solid actress if a little stiff. But even I
felt sorry for her in Bomba. What was her agent thinking?
This film is a small delight. Funny and warm. With two murders thrown in.
Marian (Lynn Bari) is a mystery writer and mother of three children - two
girls and a boy. Peggy is the oldest daughter, Connie Marshall (Mr Blandings
Builds his Dream House) is the second oldest and Dean Stockwell plays the
young boy. I usually hate children in films but these three are choice. Their
dialogue is quick, smart and amusing and the interplay between them has great
chemistry. Probably too grown up for reality but their mother is a novelist
and their dead father was a journalist. There are numerous references in
the film to popular culture - one to Dashiell Hammett and at one point the
young boy says to his mother, you need to write a book as popular as Forever
Amber.
When a neighbor is murdered the three children who have read all their mother's
books about private eye Bill Smith ("Oh I thought after Nero Wolf and Philo
Vance a regular name would be different") figure that they can solve the
case. So they mislead - i.e. lie to the cops Randolph Scott (whose name happens
to be Bill Smith) and his sergeant the always wonderful James Gleason about
the time they heard the shots. And hide the main suspect. Besides trying
to solve the case and breaking the law they also want to get their mother
and the real Bill Smith together. Kind of like a Deanna Durbin film without
the singing. The best friend is played by Barbara Whiting who is just as
whip smart as the other kids.
