MY SON JOHN has been a bit of an obscure legend for decades. After finally seeing it, I can say "Deservedly So". It's an embarrassment to everyone involved... so much so that I have to wonder if the script was written to broadly parody the film's stated purpose. In many ways, the script seems like an elaborate joke.
The film concentrates on reinforcing and perpetuating the hysterical and often baseless propaganda stereotypes of McCarthy era America. It concentrates on upholding "American Cultural Values"... sometimes in ridiculous ways.
In a rather amusing and decidedly quaint early sequence, women are well and truly put in their place as the family doctor forces pills on Helen Hayes for an unstated malady (clearly the effects of menopause). No explanations, just stern orders to TAKE THE PILLS, and no questions or backtalk permitted!!! You're clearly not able to understand an explanation even if it was offered... women shouldn't bother their heads with such matters.
Dean Jager is forced to deliver dialog that portrays him as a simple minded dolt who knows nothing more than the blind patriotism preached by the Joe McCarthys and Roy Cohns. In an embarrassing sequence Dean passionately and almost hysterically belts out the mindless lyrics of an anti Red song dredged up from the days of the Palmer Raids and Red hysteria of the 1920s.
There is a REALLY warped and twisted bit of business as Mother sends two of her sons off to the war in Korea.
One son promises to send her back an OPIUM PIPE! What is Mama gonna do with THAT??? Perhaps opium is intended to be a means more effective than pills for dealing with Hot Flashes??? In a particularly jolting Freudian moment, they refer to her as their "Sweater Girl"... a reference to Jayne Russell's WW2 pin-ups that deliberately displayed her ample breasts, carefully camouflaged by a sweater.
WHEN is the last time you heard somebody make reference to his mother's breasts... let alone in a context of sexual titillation? Most astonishing of all is the end of this amazing sequence... Mama leans into the window of the car to bestow a final kiss on her son... a MUCH LONGER than motherly kiss... and is rewarded by HER SON giving her a passionate hug that threatens to pull her thru the window and into his lap! This script HAD to be a put-on... NO writer would construct so many awkward, off-putting situations unless he was doing it deliberately.
The rest of the script is replete with awkward, strained ideological claptrap, some of it delivered by the Right Reverend Frank McHugh!!! The Reverend Frank as comedy relief in GOING MY WAY; he did it again here, but usually in situations where comedy wasn't called for.
The third son, our protagonist, is a college educated egghead who is a dupe and Fellow Traveler for the International Communist Conspiracy. The clear message... intellectuals are NOT to be trusted. They'll become Commies EVERY time.
Most astonishing... when Our Hero is tagged for assassination, The Dirty Commies come out in a sinister looking, high power black sedan, and MACHINE GUN him in the streets of Washington DC!!! No one is apparently captured for the crime; they get away clean.
That happened just about EVERY DAY in Washington. Yeah.
I have to hand it to the writers of the script... they succeeded in poking a finger in the eye of the every Red scare witch hunter in Washington with a patently absurd movie. They skated a fine and very dangerous line here.
It was absurd enough to get the point across to thinking audiences, but not so far over the top that Neanderthal ideologues could directly attack it. It makes them look ridiculous.
It's no wonder that this film vanished from circulation so quickly, and remained buried all these years; it flips The Bird at every anti Red demagogue of the era.
The film concentrates on reinforcing and perpetuating the hysterical and often baseless propaganda stereotypes of McCarthy era America. It concentrates on upholding "American Cultural Values"... sometimes in ridiculous ways.
In a rather amusing and decidedly quaint early sequence, women are well and truly put in their place as the family doctor forces pills on Helen Hayes for an unstated malady (clearly the effects of menopause). No explanations, just stern orders to TAKE THE PILLS, and no questions or backtalk permitted!!! You're clearly not able to understand an explanation even if it was offered... women shouldn't bother their heads with such matters.
Dean Jager is forced to deliver dialog that portrays him as a simple minded dolt who knows nothing more than the blind patriotism preached by the Joe McCarthys and Roy Cohns. In an embarrassing sequence Dean passionately and almost hysterically belts out the mindless lyrics of an anti Red song dredged up from the days of the Palmer Raids and Red hysteria of the 1920s.
There is a REALLY warped and twisted bit of business as Mother sends two of her sons off to the war in Korea.
One son promises to send her back an OPIUM PIPE! What is Mama gonna do with THAT??? Perhaps opium is intended to be a means more effective than pills for dealing with Hot Flashes??? In a particularly jolting Freudian moment, they refer to her as their "Sweater Girl"... a reference to Jayne Russell's WW2 pin-ups that deliberately displayed her ample breasts, carefully camouflaged by a sweater.
WHEN is the last time you heard somebody make reference to his mother's breasts... let alone in a context of sexual titillation? Most astonishing of all is the end of this amazing sequence... Mama leans into the window of the car to bestow a final kiss on her son... a MUCH LONGER than motherly kiss... and is rewarded by HER SON giving her a passionate hug that threatens to pull her thru the window and into his lap! This script HAD to be a put-on... NO writer would construct so many awkward, off-putting situations unless he was doing it deliberately.
The rest of the script is replete with awkward, strained ideological claptrap, some of it delivered by the Right Reverend Frank McHugh!!! The Reverend Frank as comedy relief in GOING MY WAY; he did it again here, but usually in situations where comedy wasn't called for.
The third son, our protagonist, is a college educated egghead who is a dupe and Fellow Traveler for the International Communist Conspiracy. The clear message... intellectuals are NOT to be trusted. They'll become Commies EVERY time.
Most astonishing... when Our Hero is tagged for assassination, The Dirty Commies come out in a sinister looking, high power black sedan, and MACHINE GUN him in the streets of Washington DC!!! No one is apparently captured for the crime; they get away clean.
That happened just about EVERY DAY in Washington. Yeah.
I have to hand it to the writers of the script... they succeeded in poking a finger in the eye of the every Red scare witch hunter in Washington with a patently absurd movie. They skated a fine and very dangerous line here.
It was absurd enough to get the point across to thinking audiences, but not so far over the top that Neanderthal ideologues could directly attack it. It makes them look ridiculous.
It's no wonder that this film vanished from circulation so quickly, and remained buried all these years; it flips The Bird at every anti Red demagogue of the era.