Those Calloways

Disney which is best known now for their animated films made a number of good movies with real actors and actresses. This 1965 feature is one of those movies. An excellent cast of talented actors headed up by the late Brian Keith and the beautiful Vera Miles tells the tale of a family whose dream is to create a sanctuary for wild Geese. Certain interest groups have other ideas however for the fate of the Geese. If you've never seen this Disney movie from the mid 60's then check it out on the Disney channel or rent it. A young Linda Evans and Tom Skerritt also costar along with Brandon DeWilde the legendary Walter Brennan and Ed Wynn.

This movie is one of the better movies that Disney put out in the '60s. Many of the movies that they were producing in this time period were obviously family oriented, but all had a much lighter tone to them. This was a serious look at a serious time in US History, and I think they did a fantastic job with it. Overall, the performances are memorable, and the cast has stars, but is not overweighted. Some supporting roles of note are done by Ed Wynn and Walter Brennan. The music is also well scripted. Definitely worth a look.

"You can catch more bees with honey than with vinegar"--an old proverb

"Those Calloways" is a live action DIsney film which has long ago faded into obscurity. I decided to watch it because of its impressive cast. However, if you try to watch it on Disney+, you are forced to watch a quick blurb about how the film isn't politically correct. The only 'offensive' things I saw were hunting and trapping and a non-American Indian playing an Indian. In other words, Disney is appealing to REALLY sensitive people out there...and if you see the film, ignore this blurb. By the way, this isn't all that easy because I found if you stop and re-start the film, it makes you watch this statement again.

As for the movie, it seems to epitomize the word 'okay'. It is nice is some ways but in others it could have stood some improvement. In particular, Mr. Calloway is big into preserving the geese from over hunting....but he yells and bellows so much. You can actually understand why many folks DIDN'T listen to him. A John Muir, he was not!

Apart from that, it's the type of live action film Walt himself loved, as it emphasizes a bygone era in America and old fashioned values. Considering his love of the late 1800s and early 1900s, setting the film during the Coolidge administration (1923-1929) isn't a surprise.

Overall, the film features some nice story and nice acting (apart from Brian Keith...the character who seemed to be yelling all the time). It's not a film I'd rush to see but don't let Disney's current warning scare you away...it's not offensive unless you hate hunting and can't get past Frank DeKova playing an Indian...though hundreds of films and TV shows of the 1950s-60s featured this. I don't like it because it's more realistic to have American Indians playing American Indians, but I have pretty thick skin.

Those Calloways is a family film from the Walt Disney Studios about a man who was raised by the Indians in rural Vermont and as such has an appreciation for nature that his fellow whites fail to see. As this film is set in the early years of the last century, Brian Keith's character would have an ally in the White House who would be making conservation a prime policy initiative in his presidency.

Theodore Roosevelt would have appreciated Cam Calloway's concern for the wild geese who pass over his part of Vermont going south for the winter. Their passage is something noted and revered by the Indians who helped raise Keith. But his concern for the geese is not something that his family, wife Vera Miles and son Brandon DeWilde, share with the same enthusiasm.

But if Miles and DeWilde are not on the same page as Keith, the rest of the town just ain't even reading the same book. The only real ally that Keith has is storekeeper Walter Brennan. A fast talking salesman played by Phillip Abbott wants to turn their little corner of Vermont into a duckhunter's paradise that might make the town some real money. Naturally they're resentful of Keith who is seeming to take the bread out of their mouths.

Those Calloways has a good cast and a sincere message about conservation. It's not delivered however in the best fashion and the audience never really gets it, why Brian Keith is so passionate about those geese. It's not one of the Disney Studio's better efforts.

I love these simple films from the 60s and 70s of Disney, at first that cute message about mistreatment and extermination of animals and peoples, but here we have a beautiful example of love and care for nature and wild animals, beautiful film, delicate and lovely, except for the money hunts and clothing skins... So beautiful, he "sacrifices" his own family for the sake of geese, a pity he just doesn't care about the animals they kill to get their skin off, but like every Disney movie does all right in the end... It's so long, but so engaging that we don't realize...