Apart from a sappy opening song, this film took me by surprise. It's charming and well worth your time.
Back in 1956, Patty McCormack starred in "The Bad Seed"...the story of an incredibly evil and dark child who is superficially charming but a demon inside. Well, at the beginning of "Kathy O'" you might think it's "The Bad Seed II", as Patty plays an awful child actress who treats those around her like dirt. It's so bad that the studio has had to switch public relations workers, as she assaulted the last one! So Harry Johnson (Dan Duryea) is NOT thrilled when the case is dropped in his lap. He's also not particularly happy that he has to try to get this hellion child actress to be nice and do an interview for a magazine...done by Harry's ex-wife (Jan Sterling)! What's next? See the film.
For the first half of the film, you could easily think it's the story of a man cheating on his second wife with his first. After all, the ex-Mrs. Johnson seems very interested in Harry and it's obvious she missed the family she never had with him...something Harry now has with wife #2. But this is NOT where the film ends up...nope, it really caught me by surprise where the film went next...and I'll say no more other than I liked where it went AND you might want to have some Kleenex handy if you watch.
Exquisitely well written and acted, I am surprised I never heard of this film before nor that it's not particularly famous. It's a shame, as McCormack is great here...really, really amazing.
