Moviecut—Driftwood

source: Driftwood

Driftwood

A little girl is not having a good day: her grand-pappy (her only relative) dies and then a plane crashes in her yard. The story is corny and the plot meanders somewhat, with the focus shifting from the plight of the little girl to small town politics to a spotted fever outbreak. In the same year she appeared in "Miracle on 34th Street," Wood here plays the youngster who quotes Bible verses. She is taken into the home of Brennan and Jagger (it's not clear why these two middle-aged men are living together). Warrick, who made her film debut in "Citizen Kane," and whose career went downhill from there, here plays the love interest of Jagger.

Fine cast races through second-string drama about an orphaned girl from Bull Frog Springs, Nevada whose Collie dog may hold the answer to an outbreak of Spotted Fever that threatens a homey town. Begins well, with Natalie Wood (spunky with a solemn little face) just fine as the Bible-quoting youngster, but the plot gets all balled-up, spending too much time on the buffoonish town dolts (like a foolish mayor and his bratty son, whose complaints about a dog bite brings the entire town into the courtroom). The subplot about the disease is agonizing, yet not nearly as bad as a second one involving two unmarried women hoping for husbands. The movie rushes along at a fast clip, but it's not very inspiring, original or inventive. ** from ****

I must have sat through this film at least twenty times, and cannot say that I was bored on any of them. My girls insisted I record it from them (on VHS) when it was on about 25 years ago, and then proceeded to watch it every Saturday morning for the next 6 months. It may be rather twee nd cute, but even now "daisy's ... they're my favourite flower" still evokes a smile from them and from my wife Predictable, happy ending - but then what else do you want from a children's film? Natalie Wood performs very ably, and the other main characters are highly satisfactory, including the lady who played the Wicked Witch in The Wizard of Oz. Highly recommended for those with small girls, and I wish they would issue it on DVD

Remarkable how talented a child actor Natalie Wood was. Saw this on Amazon Prime- clicked it like playing 'movie roulette' - the initial fire & brimstone deserted decayed church scene is so strange but then , yeah,it's cheesy, And sweet but you wind up liking these people and rooting for them: it's got 'Lassie' 'the wicked witch Walter Brennan , etc many character actors of that time '. It has the happy ending you know is coming and, which in these days of superior cynicism, is oddly satisfying: they're happy. Good wins. Viewing this from 2015 it's an amazing & sweet time capsule I got pulled in and wound up watching the entire thing.