All Mine to Give

An unexpected heart-warming movie I first saw on a late night movie about 21 years ago. The scenes of life for a new family in America are touching. The trials and tribulations of this family lead to an extremely heart-wrenching finale. I scan the T.V. paper every week looking for this film and make a point of watching it every time it's on, therefore I've seen it over 10 times

This is a tissue-tugger if there ever was one! I haven't seen this movie in several years but growing up, I always made a point of seeing this movie. It is one of the few movies that as a young man and an adult that I have watched multiple times. I always found it very moving and an emotional experience. I don't normally cry at movies but this one always made me misty. I looked for it for several years, telling my wife what a great movie it was to see and how I wanted to share it with her. I finally wrote to several of the TV networks and got one to respond with the next time it was going to be on television. It was a big night in our household, popcorn popped, tissues handy, and kids to bed as we watched the movie. As the finally credits start rolling and I'm holding back from getting misty, I look to my wife, ask her what she thought and she answered with, "Is that all there is to it?" I was crushed to say the least.

At any rate, it still moved me, though I hadn't seen it in years. You feel for the struggles of the family, the harshness of the wilderness and the era for growing family. You see how adversity makes the family more close-knit and the bond between one another grows. No TV, no Nintendo, none of the amenities of today but the love and understanding that builds in a large family that relies on each other.

When we were in high school and college, my sister and I used to watch this movie every time it came on TV. If it started at 3AM, we were there with our tissues! We watched it so many times, that I would start to cry even before any thing sad happens. My sister and I are trying to find a copy so we can share it with our daughters. So far I've found 14 Video stores nation-wide that still carry it, but I don't know yet if any of them will rent it to me via the mail. I'm hopeful though, because any one who has ever seen this special movie, never forgets it. I now have seven children of my own, and even though none of them have seen it, they all know the story, and the title. It's difficult to summarize ALL MINE TO GIVE, without giving the story away. If you see it once, you'll look forward to seeing it again and again. I don't think there is another movie of this type that elicits such a universal reaction from the viewers.

We take for granted a lot of things in our lives. The struggle of the first settlers of this country is something we don't tend to think much about, yet, what these people endured during the XIX century, is something most of us, today, are not prepared to do, myself included.

The film is a sweet account to a Scottish family settling in Wisconsin. As directed by Alan Reisner, it makes us look into the past as this family decides to take root in a hostile environment. It was a surprise to hear the score by the great Max Steiner in the background, as it helps the film tremendously.

The acting by Cameron Mitchell, Glynis Johns, and the rest of the cast is predictable. The children are wonderful, as they decide to continue the legacy of their parents.

I've seen this once- many years ago, buried in a package of old movies the local station owned. For most of the way, it's a good, realistic view of frontier life, like something out of the Waltons or Little House on the Prairie. At the end, however, it becomes something much more special than that. I call the end of this film the "Rock Test". If you can watch it and not cry, you're a rock. The thing that makes it work is that it's not maudlin, just real and human. A rare gem, the sort of thing that makes it worth scanning the TV listings looking for it. Believe me, if you find it, it will be the best thing on the page.