The Old Swimmin' Hole

Hollywood wasted many talents, including, sadly, most of the wonderful stars of the silent era. In this cheap and shoddy production, the excellent Leatrice Joy, former leading lady of Cecil B. De Mille, shines, in a deeply moving performance - a performance that eclipses the maudlin and sentimental script. She plays a single mother in a small country town, who can't afford to send her talented son to school, and fears that this will prevent him achieving his ambition to be a doctor. She's also in love with the local doctor, and he loves her, but they have never revealed their love to each other. In the scenes Leatrice has with the doctor, she conveys a tenderness that is rare to see on the screen. All her scenes are vividly real, but she also has that mischievous twinkle in her eye, that made her one of the best comediennes of the silent era.

It is only her performance that makes this film worth seeing. All the other performances are forced and labored, especially those of the young people, who play "cute" in a very self conscious way. It doesn't help that, like so many films of the 1940s, the film is patronising in its treatment of the emotions of young people. At times it even ridicules them. No wonder youth would soon rebel and embrace James Dean as their hero.

Overall this is a B-grade attempt to make an Andy Hardy-like "all-American, apple-pie" type comedy/drama about young people and "real" values. It fails on every level, except that it allowed the magical Leatrice Joy to light up the screen once more.