Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
David Janssen | ... | Dealey | |
Patti Page | ... | Liz | |
Walter Winchell | ... | Walter Winchell | |
Mickey Shaughnessy | ... | Sergeant | |
Robert Strauss | ... | Sammy Boy | |
Arnold Stang | ... | Peewee | |
Louis Quinn | ... | Dimmy | |
Gale Gordon | ... | Colonel | |
Dick Patterson | ... | Perky | |
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Susan Kelly | ... | Lt. Calhoun |
John Melfi | ... | Jo-Jo | |
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Bonnie Scott | ... | Gladdy |
William Wellman Jr. | ... | Ted | |
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Nola Thorp | ... | Candy |
Joan Staley | ... | Sally |
Six American GIs stationed in Italy befriend an orphaned boy, but the soldiers remain unaware that the lad has stowed away with them when they return to the U.S. The six go their separate ways, leaving the tyke alone in the big city. Now, New York becomes one big adventure for a little Italian boy named Dondi.
I was about about 9 years old when the movie Dondi came to the Fernrock Theater in North Philly, the neighborhood I grew up in. I had been an avid reader of the comic strip (published in the Sunday Philadelphia Inquirer) since it was first introduced and I suppose because of my age at the time, I related to the title character. All I remember today is that I loved it as a kid and cried like a baby at all the sappy parts.
I am sure if I were to revisit this movie today as a jaded 50-something year old guy, I too might rain harsh words about this movie which has accumulated a whopping 3.3 stars by the reviewers. But I choose to rate it based on the way it made me feel when I was nine, and too naive to know old folks in the year 2004 would consider it a piece of crap. Today our kids grow up much too fast. A movie like Dondi might be just what the doctor ordered for your kids as opposed to say - a prescription for Ritalin.
Dondi gets a 7.5 from me.