First effort by a great director who made a lot of classics ;in his forty-year career ,he never produced anything mediocre ,except in his final years,from " Ashanti" onward .
Sharyn Moffet is no Shirley Temple ;she is actually a lot better and they were right to give her the top of the bill.No soap opera, no clichés, ....and no happy end ,which was challenging at the time : we're left with two children of divorce ,hearing chimes ringing (or are they tolling?),in front a wedding,contemplating a bleak future .Definitely not a movie for the whole family.
Far from Hollywood conventions ,this deeply moving work might have been inspired by Vittorio De Sica's " Il Bambini Ci Guardano" (1942) (= the children are watching us);the Italian story looks like Lillie Hayward 's screenplay but is more cruel (the father commits suicide).
We have a tendency to side with the papa ,but final acquaintance shows that both parents are selfish ,and the decision they make (suggested by a doctor whose piece of advice is rather debatable)is the easy way out:why not another child for both of them after they 'get rid" of this sick girl who may find solace in her doll house ;after all , ,who's Bobby? a doll with whom they grow tired of playing with.
Sharyn Moffet is admirable,feeling she had been treated unfairly ,she acts as though she holds nothing against those would be parents who want to "live their life" .
Sharyn Moffet is no Shirley Temple ;she is actually a lot better and they were right to give her the top of the bill.No soap opera, no clichés, ....and no happy end ,which was challenging at the time : we're left with two children of divorce ,hearing chimes ringing (or are they tolling?),in front a wedding,contemplating a bleak future .Definitely not a movie for the whole family.
Far from Hollywood conventions ,this deeply moving work might have been inspired by Vittorio De Sica's " Il Bambini Ci Guardano" (1942) (= the children are watching us);the Italian story looks like Lillie Hayward 's screenplay but is more cruel (the father commits suicide).
We have a tendency to side with the papa ,but final acquaintance shows that both parents are selfish ,and the decision they make (suggested by a doctor whose piece of advice is rather debatable)is the easy way out:why not another child for both of them after they 'get rid" of this sick girl who may find solace in her doll house ;after all , ,who's Bobby? a doll with whom they grow tired of playing with.
Sharyn Moffet is admirable,feeling she had been treated unfairly ,she acts as though she holds nothing against those would be parents who want to "live their life" .