Put simply, the problem with this film is that it's too damn nice (or, as its characters would say, "darn nice"). Rather than taking serious matters somewhat lightly, in the best "Yearlings" tradition, writer Montgomery Pittman (who I read on Wikipedia was star Steve Cochran's handyman) and director R.G. Springsteen choose, in the best "Waltons" tradition, to completely sugarcoat the pill of a deadbeat, alcoholic dad trying to reinsert himself back in his wife and kids' good graces. At no point in the movie is it anything but obvious that Anne Sheridan's single mom will take back Cochran's ne'r do well with completely loving arms nor, in what is a more significant screenwriting dereliction, is there even a whiff among Cochran's two kids that they are anything but completely enamored of Dear Ol Drunken Dad. Combine this with rather lackluster direction by Springsteen, in which none of the big set pieces...a tornado, a faux Fordian fight between Cochran and Sonny Tufts in the Vic McLaglen role, the final rescue scene...come fully alive, and you can see why good performances from the leads, plus the usual good Walter Brennan, Tufts, James Best and Edgar Buchanan in support, and nice kid acting from Richard Eyer and Sherry Jackson, cannot redeem the basic story and tone deafness of this film. Give it a C plus. PS...Good cinematography from Jack Marta that almost had me believing Northern Calif. was Northern Arkansas.
Review of Come Next Spring
