A little girl named Mike (Margaret O'Brien) arrives in NYC by train. She's waiting by herself and attracts a crowd. She's there to find her sister Barbara Ainsworth (June Allyson) who is part of an orchestra. The ladies of the orchestra has to hide Mike in their boarding house. Andrews (Jimmy Durante) is the piano player. Barbara is feeling sick and Mike thinks that she's pregnant. Barbara's husband is away fighting in the war.
Margaret O'Brien is doing her very professional cutesy girlie thing. That's worth a whole lot especially with her professional tears. Initially, there is a bit of fun and drama with a six year old alone in the city but that goes awhile relatively quickly. The plot stalls until the telegram arrives at around fifty minutes. That's really the most important dramatic element of this movie. There is a palpable sadness to the movie with the music and the story although it is done in an old melodramatic way. The fake letter is a brutal turn within the story. I don't think that I can approve of that effort. I get the appeal of the climatic reversal but I hated the fake letter idea at the moment of its conception. All in all, this is a tear-jerker or at the very least, it is doing all it can do to jerk a few tears.
Margaret O'Brien is doing her very professional cutesy girlie thing. That's worth a whole lot especially with her professional tears. Initially, there is a bit of fun and drama with a six year old alone in the city but that goes awhile relatively quickly. The plot stalls until the telegram arrives at around fifty minutes. That's really the most important dramatic element of this movie. There is a palpable sadness to the movie with the music and the story although it is done in an old melodramatic way. The fake letter is a brutal turn within the story. I don't think that I can approve of that effort. I get the appeal of the climatic reversal but I hated the fake letter idea at the moment of its conception. All in all, this is a tear-jerker or at the very least, it is doing all it can do to jerk a few tears.