Once Upon a Time

Interesting oddity with Cary Grant as a theatrical producer with a string of flops who finds his financial salvation in a little boy's dancing caterpillar named Curly. Yes, that's right. Cary Grant made a movie about a dancing caterpillar. It's one of his most bizarre movies but it's also one of his weakest. Granted it's not as terrible as a lot of reviewers here are making it out to be, but it's not very good either. The biggest problem isn't even the concept; that could actually work in a Disney sort of way. But it doesn't have the charm, innocence, or humor of a Disney film. It's kind of dull, actually. It doesn't help that we never actually see the caterpillar dance, just see people's reactions. If it were a Disney film, they would have at least given us an animated caterpillar. Ted Donaldson as the little boy with the caterpillar is very cute and likable. Cary does fine considering and James Gleason is solid as usual. Gleason's character is named The Moke, which sounds Damon Runyon-esuqe but unfortunately there's nothing else in this that reminds one of Runyon. Yet another direction they could've taken this that would've worked better than what they went with.