Although he was only 56 years old in this film, Jason Robards plays an older grandpa, Daniel Larson, to George Parry's Rusty McCloud. Eva Marie Saint plays grandma, Emma Larson, also in a role somewhat older than her 54 years. The two senior actors, both Oscar winners, were in demand and played in a number of family film roles, many made for TV, among their extensive films well into their senior years when many actors either retire or are no longer in demand.
Robards was coming off a series of four successful TV movies based on stories by Gale Rock, about growing up in a small town in Nebraska. It wasn't planned as a series to begin with, but the success of the 1972 holiday film, "The House Without a Christmas Tree" led to three more films, two with holiday themes.
This film is about a boy about 12 or 13 being sent from the city during the Great Depression to live on the farm with his grandparents, whom he apparently had not met before. Apparently the daughter had been estranged from her parents since she left the farm in Minnesota for Philadelphia and married. But, now, Mildred McCloud (played with a brief appearance by Joanne Woodward) and her husband can't find work to even be able to afford to feed three mouths. So, Mildred sends Rusty off to live for a time with her parents on the farm.
It's a good story that follows similar plots, but nothing on the level of the highly successful and very popular 1971 CBS TV film, "The Homecoming: A Christmas Story." Still, this makes for a nice family film over the holidays. It has a very nice twist for an ending that fits with the Christmas cheer.
Robards and Saint went on to make many more movies over the next 20 plus years.
