Our Old Car (1946) Poster

(1946)

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6/10
A look at Saturday mornings when the world was young...
Doylenf8 July 2008
This John Nesbitt documentary for the PASSING PARADE series is a warm-hearted look at America's love for the family automobile.

It begins with the dad of the family purchasing the first car in 1900, a horseless carriage his wife was afraid to step into--a Columbus Roadmaster he bought for $850.

The years pass quickly--a 1905 Holzman, a family car called the Mitchell for a next-door neighbor, in 1910 the Stanley Steamer attracts the neighborhood kids, and then the 1913 Model T Ford.

By the 1930s dad's kid has a jalopy he bought for $45, the ice wagon is now the ice truck and the neighborhood has become the typical busy modern looking residential street lined with autos.

Nice performances from ARTHUR SPACE and JACQUELINE WHITE as ma and pa with BILLY GRAY as a little boy, with graceful narration by John Nesbitt. Well done short is a slice of Americana.
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6/10
"We kept it in the stable and called it Belinda."
boblipton16 June 2019
John Nesbitt's "The Passing Parade" considers the parade of automobiles in a family on a quiet residential street, over about 45 years, with the cop on the beat replaced by his own son.

It's a sentimental short -- all of the series are, when it comes to that -- which celebrates America's love affair with the automobile. It also appeals to the post-war audience; production of automobiles for civilian use was in abeyance 'for the duration', and Americans had to make do with pre-War models and go easy on the tires (rubber was rationed and you better not own more than four tires) and mileage (Is this trip necessary? With an A sticker, you could buy four gallons of gas a week, and if you got 10 MPG, you were doing well). With cars going back into production, with wartime rationing vanishing, and no need to buy those war bonds.... well, perhaps it was time to think fondly about the old horseless carriage!
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8/10
Anyone who recalls the day that they steamed up their driveway . . .
pixrox114 March 2019
Warning: Spoilers
. . . in their brand new Stanley Steamer Automobile will enjoy reliving such fond memories by viewing OUR OLD CAR. Perhaps the quintessential outing in the "Passing Parade" series of theatrical shorts, OUR OLD CAR starts near the beginning of America's love affair with the 'Horseless Carriage"--which, as the name implies, did NOT clog the USA's highways and interstates with several feet of droppings every day. (We all remember how the South lost the Civil War after a field of horse manure mired "Stonewall's" cavalry unit prior to a key battle.) While it may be technically true that America never saw 50,000-plus equestrian fatalities in any one year during the Horse Age, surely there would be rogue bands of wild steeds rampaging across our fair land actually EATING people IF "Hank Ford" had not headed off this cataclysm by inventing the internal combustion engine. (Which sort of begs the question, "Would America have any liquids left with which to flush toilets, if all of our water supply was being drained to keep 100 million Stanley Steamers chugging along Today?")
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Nice Short
Michael_Elliott23 May 2009
Our Old Car (1946)

*** (out of 4)

Nostalgia trip is the key to this John Nesbitt entry in his Passing Parade series. This time out Nesbitt talks about all the automobiles that have been in his family from his father's first, to his first and up to current times. This series has always been great at taking a look at previous times and making one fond those times. This time out the subject is automobiles and this leads to some wonderfully funny moments including the scene where his mother is too afraid to get into a car for the first time. Another funny sequence is John's first car, which was junk, but he made it up to look like a circus car. The narration is spot on from start to finish and really adds a great touch to the story. Well worth checking out when it comes up on Turner Classic Movies.
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6/10
Our Old Cars
SnoopyStyle16 October 2022
The narrator (John Nesbitt) spots an old car in the driveway of a busy neighborhood of today. He looks back in time on the same street. It starts in the horse and buggy era. The car is a new fandangle invention. Over the years, the family grows, and they get newer models.

It's fun to see these old cars in a 'real' life progression. The nuclear family story isn't anything interesting. It's John Nesbitt's Passing Parade series from MGM. I was expecting one car. The title needs to change. It's Our Old Cars. It's a harmless short which gave its audience a bit of nostalgia. Today, this short itself is old.
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10/10
Motoring Down Memory Lane
Ron Oliver22 July 2005
An MGM JOHN NESBITT'S PASSING PARADE Short Subject

Many of our most cherished recollections center around OUR OLD CAR.

This backward glance at the various automobiles owned by a typical American family and their neighborhood friends during the first forty-six years of the 20th Century is pure nostalgic delight. The gentle humor and traditional values which underlay the narrative reflect a time now gone forever.

Often overlooked or neglected today, the one and two-reel short subjects were useful to the Studios as important training grounds for new or burgeoning talents, both in front & behind the camera. The dynamics for creating a successful short subject was completely different from that of a feature length film, something akin to writing a topnotch short story rather than a novel. Economical to produce in terms of both budget & schedule and capable of portraying a wide range of material, short subjects were the perfect complement to the Studios' feature films.
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9/10
If you love old cars, this is a MUST-see!
tonisavage11 October 2003
Nesbitt tells of his father's courtship of his mother in his first car (she was terrified, but didn't show it, so he proposed on the spot). He tells of all the cars, from the Stanley Steamer through the Model T and his own jalopies from his high school days.
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