Email: Subscribe Unsubscribe

A Recommended Film You May Never Have Heard Of, But Really Ought To See.

SERENDIPITY CINEMA

"Once Upon A Time" Movie Review

88. Once Upon A Time

A dancing caterpillar?
A movie about a dancing caterpillar?
You have got to be kidding.
    No, this film is not
only about a boy
whose pet caterpillar (named Curly)
dances (actually wiggles)
when he plays
"Yes Sir, That's My Baby,"
and about the producer/hustler
who is changed by the world that
the three of them create together.
    Jerry Flynn (Cary Grant, in a performance that is better
than the material he is given) plays the down on his luck
Broadway slicker who encounters the small boy and his odd little friend.
    Somehow word gets out and people find something
in the idea of the boy with
his harmonica and the insect.
They grab on to them
as some kind of hope
in a world torn by a war
that is not going well at that time.
    Now comes the time to capitalize
on the miracle and you have to wonder
if Flynn will be the good guy
or the bad guy when the smoke clears.

    And then, the unthinkable happens,
Curly vanishes.
Could there have been some
kind of horrible accident?
Could someone else have stolen
the little headline maker?
Or is the disappearance some
kind of publicity stunt?
    This is not world changing cinema.
There are not even
enough pictures on the web
to fill out an article.
Some people will look at this film and dismiss it.
So much the sadder for them.
    It is from a simpler time,
for a more naïve viewership.
It harkens back to a time when
folks wanted things to work out,
and had a hope that it would.
We live in a time when
there are people who can't watch black and white
or silent movies just cause they're too different
from what they see every day.
Here's some of the cast:
Cary Grant ....  Jerry Flynn
 Janet Blair ....  Jeannie Thompson
 James Gleason ....  The Moke
 Ted Donaldson ....  Arthur 'Pinky' Thompson
 William Demarest ....  Brandt
This movie wasn't made for the "Reality Show" generation.
So maybe movies like this are just
what those folks need more than anything else.

---

---

If you have an idea for a Serendipity Cinema, or want to comment email here

---

---

--posted by Wayne Sunday, August 06, 2006

---

Serendipity Cinema Site Feed

Previous Posts

Copyright 2004-5 C. Wayne Owens
Discount web hosting through Houston Web Hosting Discount
Movie & TV News graphics by A Dragon's Eye Fantasy Art

· Brobdingnagian Bards Free Music Downloads · Irish Drinking Songs for Cat Lovers
· Celtic Music MP3 Downloads Magazine · Tolkien's The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings Music · Free Music Blog · Directory of Free Music Downloads ·