With a script based on a novel by Florence Montgomery, this is a tragic story, of a family torn apart by the premature death of the mother and the attempt by the husband and two young children to overcome this irreparable loss.
The father, believing that his eldest son would be more mature and better prepared to face the tragedy, seeks his complicity, to avoid further suffering for the youngest. But this decision turns out to be tragically wrong.
It's a well-made film (although the Italian dubbing, by British actors Anthony Quayle and John Sharpe, takes away some of the authenticity of the adaptation), centered on a child's perspective on family tragedy.
But the adapted work lacks the British spirit, that coldness that gives a certain nobility to the tragedy. Dubbed in Italian and centered on two mischievous children, with a clearly Latin spirit, the work is excessively melodramatic. A Latin fatalism, which does not fit well with the haughtiness of Anglo Saxon suffering.
I think the work loses strength in this Italian adaptation. A more formal and British treatment of these young orphans, with the rebelliousness and wit that should characterize them, would give more meaning and depth to the final outcome.
