Out of Universal Pictures, a low-rent/low-pressure MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS/’44 wannabe from (wait for it) Douglas Sirk!? And something of an unexpected treat. (The lower wattage not necessarily a bad thing.) Charles Coburn’s the ailing, heirless gazillionaire with a fortune he wants to give to the family of the late beauty who stole his heart, but then said NO. Initial disappointment leading to his great success in business. But first, he must check out the family he never had/never knew, and see how they might handle unexpected good fortune. Granted, the money-isn’t-everything ethos gets applied like impasto on a Van Gogh canvas, but the Hallmark Card ‘Roaring ‘Twenties’ flavor fits the moral, the playing is breezy rather than underlined, and Mom’s good old-fashioned beef stew proves a tonic to Coburn’s delicate stomach. Lynn Bari & Larry Gates are over-parted as Mom & Dad, but everyone else is just dandy once Coburn shows up under an alias as a lodger. Rock Hudson with an impossibly thick head of hair is the soda jerk of Piper Laurie’s dreams, working the counter at Dad’s pharmacy*, but Mom wants something better for her. Fortunately, Gigi Perreau doesn’t have to pull our heartstrings as the kid sister and there’s the Easter Egg of Easter Eggs when James Dean shows up at the counter for a malted, still guileless and angst-free. From MEET ME, there’s a song to pass around the house, snow for Christmas, a dancing finale, and an older brother with lessons to learn in a house far more modest than 5135 Kensington Avenue. But then Mom goes ‘high hat’ and buys a mansion; Laurie accepts an engagement with the town’s wild rich boy; Dad loses big in the stock market; older brother buys a fancy car and gambles his way into serious debt. Plenty of missteps for Coburn to fix before he tiptoes away. The film not quite bothering to tie things up. Fun!
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: *Doing a Charleston, Hudson looks like he’s playing cat’s cradle with his long limbs.
DOUBLE-BiLL: As mentioned, MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS, but not too soon whichever you watch first.
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