On the Sunny Side DVD Review
The Lillie Hayward-George Templeton screenplay is all pretty obvious stuff, and it’s disappointing that every adult in the family: from the maid Annie (Jane Darwell) to Mr. (Don Douglas) and Mrs. (Katharine Alexander) Anderson seems to have blinders on as to the way Don’s enthusiasm for Hugh has altered, that they can’t see at a glance that Don is brooding over something and needs to be talked with and consoled. (Were this an Andy Hardy picture, you can bet Mr. Hardy would have sat Andy down and given him a firm little sermon about the foreign boy’s plight and his responsibility to be a good host to him; the parents here do no observable parenting but do stand by beaming when their son is involved in a neighborhood brawl with a couple of bullies). The main conflict is with two bullies (Stanley Clements, Fred Walburn) who insist on tormenting Don and Hugh at every opportunity, and there are a couple of fights staged in which the boys claim they’ve held their own (but neither of the bullies sport the black eyes Don and Hugh eventually have). As for jerking tears, there is an effective moment when a shortwave broadcast is rigged up to allow the refugee children to speak with their parents back in England, and Hugh has the warmest things to say to his mother (Jill Esmond, at one time Mrs. Laurence Olivier) about the loving Andersons. It’s probably the film’s highlight along with the running gag of Hugh’s English jargon being so different from its American counterparts.
Roddy McDowall’s Hugh keeps a stiff upper lip through the film, admirably never sinking to the level of weeping bathos over his separation from his parents and his home. And Freddie Mercer does a fine job, too, as the neglected Don, very enthusiastic about Hugh at the beginning and then slowly losing his effusion for him as Hugh becomes uppermost in everyone’s thoughts. As a once and future Dead End Kid/Bowery Boy Stanley Clements has the bully stuff down pat. All of the adults do their jobs professionally with Don Douglas especially a standout as a father never too busy for a game of chess with Hugh, and Jill Esmond scores nicely in her one scene as the mother who really misses her son but keeps up a brave front.
After scoring such a hit in John Ford’s How Green Was My Valley and a half dozen other films in 1941, Twentieth Century Fox knew it had a child star of its own who could compete with the Deanna Durbins and the Mickey Rooneys at other studios. Roddy McDowall gets solo top billing in Harold Schuster’s On the Sunny Side, a pleasant if fairly obvious wartime morale booster and a film that allows the studio to portray its new star as a regular kid (even if he is from England) who likes to roughhouse and doesn’t back down from a fight. The film doesn’t offer him any heavy dramatics, but it is a satisfying little programmer.
Studio: Fox
Distributed By: N/A
Video Resolution and Encode: 480I/MPEG-2
Aspect Ratio: 1.37:1
Audio: English 2.0 DD
Subtitles: None
Rating: Not Rated
Run Time: 1 Hr. 9 Min.
Package Includes: DVD
Amaray caseDisc Type: DVD-R
Region: 1
Release Date: 10/28/2014
MSRP: $19.98
The Production Rating: 2.5/5
The Lillie Hayward-George Templeton screenplay is all pretty obvious stuff, and it’s disappointing that every adult in the family: from the maid Annie (Jane Darwell) to Mr. (Don Douglas) and Mrs. (Katharine Alexander) Anderson seems to have blinders on as to the way Don’s enthusiasm for Hugh has altered, that they can’t see at a glance that Don is brooding over something and needs to be talked with and consoled. (Were this an Andy Hardy picture, you can bet Mr. Hardy would have sat Andy down and given him a firm little sermon about the foreign boy’s plight and his responsibility to be a good host to him; the parents here do no observable parenting but do stand by beaming when their son is involved in a neighborhood brawl with a couple of bullies). The main conflict is with two bullies (Stanley Clements, Fred Walburn) who insist on tormenting Don and Hugh at every opportunity, and there are a couple of fights staged in which the boys claim they’ve held their own (but neither of the bullies sport the black eyes Don and Hugh eventually have). As for jerking tears, there is an effective moment when a shortwave broadcast is rigged up to allow the refugee children to speak with their parents back in England, and Hugh has the warmest things to say to his mother (Jill Esmond, at one time Mrs. Laurence Olivier) about the loving Andersons. It’s probably the film’s highlight along with the running gag of Hugh’s English jargon being so different from its American counterparts.
Roddy McDowall’s Hugh keeps a stiff upper lip through the film, admirably never sinking to the level of weeping bathos over his separation from his parents and his home. And Freddie Mercer does a fine job, too, as the neglected Don, very enthusiastic about Hugh at the beginning and then slowly losing his effusion for him as Hugh becomes uppermost in everyone’s thoughts. As a once and future Dead End Kid/Bowery Boy Stanley Clements has the bully stuff down pat. All of the adults do their jobs professionally with Don Douglas especially a standout as a father never too busy for a game of chess with Hugh, and Jill Esmond scores nicely in her one scene as the mother who really misses her son but keeps up a brave front.
Video Rating: 3/5 3D Rating: NA
Audio Rating: 2.5/5
Special Features Rating: 0/5
Overall Rating: 2.5/5
Reviewed By: Matt Hough
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