A little bit of sentimentality never hurt, and you do expect that in some movies made before 1980. This focuses on a youngster (Jimmy Lyndon) sent to reform school for breaking into a music store prior to his grade school graduation and what happens after he gets out. he ends up in prison (now played by Wallace Ford in his adult years), gets parole, and gets into further trouble. It's not an easy existence, and he didn't have a promising childhood with a drunken father and an exhausted mother. But he did have a caring teacher, Aline MacMahon, who has cared for him from a distance from many years and she is very delighted when he visits her even if he hasn't come out all that well.
It appears at the class that Lyndon/Ford was in was a special class for Ms. MacMahon because she doesn't mention anybody but her students from that class. For the most part outside of Ford, they have done well, so a reunion is set up which leads to a dramatic and unfortunate conclusion. While there certainly are cliches, the film is rather direct so the sentiment is often replaced by a sense of modern reality that went from the turbulent 1920's to the very troubled late thirties. that makes it more of a personal drama.
MacMahon as usual is presented as a character with the biggest heart and if you had a teacher anything like her, it will make you feel sentimental as well. With her sad but caring eyes, you basically see her soul right on the surface. Patricia Ellis plays the now grown young lady who once had a crush on Ford, and she's a bit down on her luck as well, working as a struggling entertainer. Douglas McMullen is the class intellect, smugly showing off his ability to do times tables at the graduation and now head of the bank and the school board which has forcefully retired MacMahon.
Now MacMullen wants to tear down the old school house so he has set up a reunion, basically to show off how far he has advanced. Ford's sentiment towards his old teacher and the school is touching, basically his only happy childhood memory, and his performance is a mixture of sweetness and sour. Smaller roles are filled by such familiar faces as Stuart Erwin (cast against type as an ex-con) and Van Heflin as an attorney. Veteran screen floozy Iris Adrian is also briefly seen as Ellis's roommate.
The script is decent even with its cliches, and the performances sincere, even though they overdo it with the sentimental music. Not one of the greatest films of 1939 (that's too tough of an expectation for any movie that year), but you won't be disappointed completely even if its viewpoint of elementary schools is quite dated. Ellis gets a good chance to tell off MacMullen, a scene reminiscent of Auntie Em telling Miss Gulch off in "The Wizard of Oz". Like "Carousel", common sense will tell you that the ending will be sad, and indeed it is.
It appears at the class that Lyndon/Ford was in was a special class for Ms. MacMahon because she doesn't mention anybody but her students from that class. For the most part outside of Ford, they have done well, so a reunion is set up which leads to a dramatic and unfortunate conclusion. While there certainly are cliches, the film is rather direct so the sentiment is often replaced by a sense of modern reality that went from the turbulent 1920's to the very troubled late thirties. that makes it more of a personal drama.
MacMahon as usual is presented as a character with the biggest heart and if you had a teacher anything like her, it will make you feel sentimental as well. With her sad but caring eyes, you basically see her soul right on the surface. Patricia Ellis plays the now grown young lady who once had a crush on Ford, and she's a bit down on her luck as well, working as a struggling entertainer. Douglas McMullen is the class intellect, smugly showing off his ability to do times tables at the graduation and now head of the bank and the school board which has forcefully retired MacMahon.
Now MacMullen wants to tear down the old school house so he has set up a reunion, basically to show off how far he has advanced. Ford's sentiment towards his old teacher and the school is touching, basically his only happy childhood memory, and his performance is a mixture of sweetness and sour. Smaller roles are filled by such familiar faces as Stuart Erwin (cast against type as an ex-con) and Van Heflin as an attorney. Veteran screen floozy Iris Adrian is also briefly seen as Ellis's roommate.
The script is decent even with its cliches, and the performances sincere, even though they overdo it with the sentimental music. Not one of the greatest films of 1939 (that's too tough of an expectation for any movie that year), but you won't be disappointed completely even if its viewpoint of elementary schools is quite dated. Ellis gets a good chance to tell off MacMullen, a scene reminiscent of Auntie Em telling Miss Gulch off in "The Wizard of Oz". Like "Carousel", common sense will tell you that the ending will be sad, and indeed it is.