My goodness is it ever cold outside! Had to shorten my walk this eve, something I rarely do, but with the wind blowing on top of the chilly temp, I was turning into a popsicle. Also, the San Gabriel Mountains bordering the east end of the Valley are as covered in snow as I've ever seen them. Some winters they don't have any, and when they do it's usually just dusting the peaks, but this time the entire mountainside is covered like the Swiss Alps. I'm not a Winter Person as you know, but it sure looks pretty this time around.
This evening I watched a movie called "All Mine To Give"(1957), which was part of a four film bargain pack I ordered from Amazon last week. I hadn't heard of it before, but it was promoted as a holiday movie, and because I don't like to just cut the Season off the moment the calendar reads December 26th, I thought I'd wind things down with a film I'd never seen, and it turned out to be quite profound.
Once in a while we have a plot that, for spoiler reasons, I can't describe in too much detail. This is one such story, where the plot is the spoiler, so I'm only gonna give you the basics. Cameron Mitchell stars as Robert Eunson, a Scot who has just emigrated to America with his wife Jo in 1853. They've come at the behest of her Uncle, who lives in Wisconsin, but when they arrive they discover that the man has been killed in a fire that burned his cabin to the ground. The Eunsons are undeterred, and Robert, a resourceful man, begins to build them a cabin of their own. He soon has the help of the townspeople, who pitch in to erect the cabin in one day. Robert Eunson experiences prejudice, in the form of the local Harpy, a loudmouth who tells him to go back where he came from, but he believes in America and in hard work, so he enlists at a nearby logging camp run by The Skipper (Alan Hale Jr.). Soon he has the funds to start a family.
The Eunson brood grows from one to six in the time it takes to view a montage. A decade has passed and now they are an established family. Mother Jo insists on schooling for the children, a luxury in those days. Father Robert walks miles in the snow to work, and finally wins over Skipper Alan Hale, a Irishman and former rival. Something will happen to the family to delay their upward climb, but I absolutely cannot tell you what it is, and I urge you not to look it up for yourself, for the movie is based on a true story. To know it beforehand will rob the film of some of it's power, which is considerable, believe me.
Had I been the promoter during the original release, I would've handed out boxes of Kleenex to all ticket holders on opening night. Better yet, I'd have bought stock in the tissue company, because this movie will tear your heart out. However, it will do so in a stoic rather than sentimental way. It's not specifically a Christmas film, and yet Christmas Day will figure prominently near the end. When it is over, you will be reminded of the importance of family in our lives, and of friends.
I wish I could tell you more, but with this movie I just can't. Cameron Mitchell is so good as Robert Eunson, right down to his authentic Scottish accent. It's funny, because we all remember him playing the cowboy Buck Cannon in the "High Chaparral" TV series, and it seems like he was that character, a dusty, black clad roughneck with a Southern drawl. But in the last few years I've seen him in several movies, and he's different in every role. He was an excellent actor, I think (and as a side note, my friends and I even remember him playing a psycho in "The Toolbox Murders" from 1978). Glynis Johns is good also as his persevering wife Jo, but who really shines is a young actor named Rex Thompson, only 14 in his part as the Eunson's eldest son Robbie. Thompson had a short career and retired from acting in 1968, but he should've been given an Oscar nomination for this portrayal of a boy whose mettle is tested to the limit.
"All Mine To Give" has the bright Technicolor look of a 1950s era Disney film, and in some respects, such as the depiction of a struggling but optimistic family, it feels like one too. But then things happen and it gets quite complicated. Again, it is based on a true story that originally appeared in Cosmopolitan magazine in 1946. Big Bear Lake stands in for Wisconsin (somewhere near Oshkosh). As the film reached it's conclusion I was blown off the map, and while it isn't your usual Christmas Classic, I wont hesitate to put it in that category. I give it Two Gigantic Thumbs Up and my highest recommendation. I urge you to see it, either now while the Season is still lingering or next year at Christmastime. Wow, what a story. ////
That's all I know for the moment. I'm easing back into my post-Christmas work cycle at Pearl's, just going slow, having eaten lots of holiday meals and sweets, haha. I'll need to get back in shape after the New Year, freezing weather or no freezing weather, but for now I'm still in semi-hibernation mode. Right now I'm off to the Libe to return some dvds. I look for more during my stop, and we'll watch one tonight! See you at the Usual Time.
Tons of love! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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