The Green Years
Real life husband and wife Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy portray father and daughter in this film. Not only that, Tandy is in reality two years older than Cronyn. Tandy gave birth to their second child, Tandy Cronyn, on the 26th of November 1945, the day after filming concluded.,When Grandma Leckie decides to make little Robert a suit, the pattern piece she holds up to his back is actually for a pants leg, not a jacket.,Alexander Gow: You're in the Green Years Robbie, you suffer the critical disease of being young. The Lord deliver me from ever having to go through that again.,Featured in Some of the Best: Twenty-Five Years of Motion Picture Leadership (1949),TCM screened this film recently and it was worth staying up past my bedtime to watch it. The film can be summed up in two words: Charles Coburn. He is magnificent as the perpetually inebriated yet good natured great grandfather. His dialogue is top notch and he delivers it to the hilt, at times funny, and others poignant. Dean Stockwell as the young boy is always interesting to watch, as are Jessica Tandy and Hume Cronyn. Fans of old films will recognize many stock players as well: the mother here is also the mother in The Fighting Sullivans and the school master turns up years later as the impresario for the Von Trapp children in the Sound of Music. It's fun to see him so young. The movie has a lot of the Goodbye Mr. Chips qualities I love in film. And keep your ears open and you'll hear strains of similar music from The Wizard of Oz - letting you know it's an MGM production. Throw in a bit of Charles Dicken's Oliver Twist and you've got a fine movie. I won't give any more away.,