What a waste of my time!!!

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Here's a nice little movie that seems to have lapsed into a partial obscurity despite its most attractive cast headed by the super-lovely Anne Baxter and the always convincing John Hodiak. The support roster, headed by Charles Winninger, features some of my favorite players, including Anne Revere, Chill Wills and Jane Darwell.While the screenplay always offers top entertainment, it's true to say that the story is somewhat unusual. To me, that's an advantage. Critics like me get sick of seeing the same old plot with the same old variations time after time after time.In addition to its fine acting, this movie is beautifully photographed by Joe MacDonald and very capably directed by the always reliable Lloyd Bacon. And I especially enjoyed Edward Powell's orchestral arrangements, particularly of "I'll See You In My Dreams".

It's only when the movie is over you 'll realize how deeply moving this very simple story is.A propaganda movie,it certainly is ,but a good propaganda movie which speaks to the heart .In those WW2 trouble times , a poor family is preparing a Sunday dinner for a guest : a soldier on furlough who will be back to the front after these fleeting moments of happiness.It's just a joy to see this family give all they have (and it is not much) to treat their guest like a member of their family ,with a little help from their neighbor.Ann Baxter and John Hodiak are a good romantic couple and their meeting when she's dancing alone is a good moment .Like this? try this...."Babettes Gaestebud" (Babette's feast),Gabriel Axel,1987

People are letting themselves get carried away. Ann Baxter is lovely, the music is lovely, Connie Marshall is a real sweetheart (reminds me a little of Peggy Ann Garner), Anne Revere as usual steals the show, and there are a few touching scenes, particularly the flyovers and in the resort ruins. Unfortunately, Lloyd Bacon's direction is execrable. This was a cheap movie, and Bacon makes it show. The sets are obviously sound stage or back lot, which a couple of location shots don't compensate for at all. And the process shots are terribly phony.But what's worse is the cloying sentimentality. Bacon has everyone calling Charles Winninger's cartoonish grandfather "Grandfeathers" every other line, just to remind us how cute the movie is. Bobby Driscoll stands on his head while blowing a whistle to show us how cute he is. The hen's noises are so obviously human (was it Mel Blanc?) it's embarrassing, as are the piles of rubber prop chickens.Next-to-top-billed John Hodiak doesn't make his appearance until near the end, which is a rip-off, given that he gets less screen time than the chicken. The movie could have spent its time developing the Baxter and Hodiak characters, using the Florida shanty, the kids the gramps and other colorful characters as a backdrop, but Bacon front-loads the movie with bathos and the antics of the side characters, while trying to sell the notion of two people falling in love over Sunday dinner in a couple of brief scenes. (Yeah, yeah, they really were an item, but that's certainly not a given in the story. Bacon has The Soldier looking like he's smitten before he's even met the lady! Maybe it was the pheromones.) I like war morale movies, especially those which capture the era. I even like sentiment. But Lloyd Bacon's clumsy, manipulative and saccharine directing wastes a fine cast and a potentially moving story.

Made use of the emotions of the citizens during the war on the homefront. I did love the movie and have found that is no where to be purchased. One may find it on cable TV. I saw it four years ago on American Movie Classics. Anne Baxter is a very attractive young woman in her role. One can easily fall for her in this film.