Spring Reunion (1957)

User Rating:

6.1/10   

Director:

Robert Pirosh

Writers:

Robert Alan Aurthur (story)
Elick Moll (writer)

Release Date:

March 1957 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

The Class of '41 at Carson High School is holding it's 15th Reunion. "Boy Most Likely To Succeed" Fred...

Plot Keywords:

Real Estate Agent | High School Reunion | High School Sweethearts

Cast

Dana Andrews	...	Fred Davis
Betty Hutton	...	Margaret 'Maggie' Brewster
Jean Hagen	...	Barna Forrest
Robert F. Simon	...	Harry Brewster
Laura La Plante	...	May Brewster
Gordon Jones	...	Jack Frazer
Sara Berner	...	Paula Kratz
Irene Ryan	...	Miss Stapleton
Herbert Anderson	...	Edward
Richard Shannon	...	Nick
Ken Curtis	...	Al
Vivi Janiss	...	Grace
Mimi Doyle	...	Alice
Florence Sundstrom	...	Mary
James Gleason	...	Mr. 'Collie' Collyer (as Jimmy Gleason)

Runtime:

79 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:S

Company:

Bryna Productions

Trivia:

Betty Hutton's last film.

Soundtrack:

That Old Feeling

Why is This Attractive Woman A Spinster?

Answer: Because she crosses her eyes when she sings.

That said, yes: Betty Hutton shows a few of the wild tics from her earlier days. But she gives a restrained, believable performance here. She looks great. We like and care about her character.

It's the fifteenth reunion of her high school class. Her old pal Jean Hagen is in town for it. She's staying with Hutton's overly protective father and her glamorous mom, Laura La Plante. Wow: These two look like sisters as much as like mother and daughter! Who does she run into but high school football hero Dana Andrews. He's a little down-at-the-heels. He works but spends most of his time working on his boat.

Andrews is also good. Hagen isn't given enough to do, which is a shame: She was a wonderful, versatile actress.

Most of the other attendees at the reunion are vaguely sketched in and uninteresting played. But Hutton and Andrews make this a very entertaining movie.

It opens with a theme song I found cloying and unappealing. This came out right before rock 'n' roll. Bigger-budget movies continued to use light music like Henry Mancini for many years after this. But if this had come out even five years later, the treacly theme song might well have been junked in favor of something by Bill Haley and the Comets.

This is not to say that the music is all bad. The song Hutton sings at the school talent show (where she crosses her eyes) is fine. And she remembers Andrews as having come on to girls in school with a recording of a Chopin nocturne. We hear that Chopin, too.

I enjoyed this movie and recommend it, not as a cinematic masterpiece but as an interestingly cast bit of movie nostalgia.