Little Mister Jim

Butch Jenkins loses his mother and has to deal with a grieving father who's unable to reconcile his own loss with his son's needs. Sound familiar? Tough, macho unfeeling guys really are sensitive underneath, is the message here. The merit of this film is the presence of Spring Byington, Morris Ankrum and a number of studio folks who were churning out these very sentimental post WW2 films. There was still a lot angst as the war was still fresh in everyone's mind and feelings of loss were abundant. This film builds on that theme adding the stress of the effect of a kid losing his mother and difficulties with his father. While this is not a great film, it has much to recommend it. It's sentimental without being maudlin, although I doubt if it would have any of the impact on today's kids as it did on me when I saw it at age 9. No video and I've yet to see it on the late show, but who knows? If it shows up in your program guide, check it out.