Way Back Home

This film gets off to a very slow start with a scene where an old New England farmer drives a tax accountant from the city nuts with his convoluted tales of bartering and swapping; being an accountant, he just wants the numbers. This went on so long, I almost gave up before the movie got underway, but I'm glad I stuck with it. It's not a great story, and it's certainly not what you'd call a Bette Davis film--she's a secondary character.

What it does do very well is to depict a rural American life that is long gone--listening in on the party line, sharing preserves with the neighbors, a taffy pull, and especially singing. The folks all gather at the preacher's house to sing the traditional American standards of the day, accompanied by the preacher's wife on a pump organ: "Love's Old Sweet Song," "Put On Your Old Grey Bonnet," "Seeing Nellie Home," and the like. I imagine these are mostly forgotten today, and it's nice to see them preserved in a relatively realistic context such as this. An unexpected pleasure.