My Son John

Much maligned in its day as one of Hollywood's much too fervent attempts at atonement to the HUAC and McCarthy for having once hired so many communists, this slick Paramount picture made in 1952 remains a social document that reveals the right-wing views some members of the film community held during those dark days. It glorifies an idealized small-town family. Dad (Dean Jagger) is a solid hard-working citizen, a Legioner who finds time to toss around a football with his two blonde athletic sons about to fight the good war in Korea; he's a man who goes to church every Sunday. The flaw in the perfect unit is mother--who else?-- and her curse of too much Mommy love; Helen Hayes, for some reason, too obviously dotes on the son (Robert Walker) who doesn't play football, doesn't go to church, and prefers the company of college professors, yes professors, to his own family. He is, horror of horrors, a practicing self-admitted intellectual.

Needless to say, we eventually learn that any spoiled child brought up this way cannot be up to good. Despite this silly propogandist view of the true values of decent American life, the film is very well directed by the great Leo McCarey, excellently acted by all the leading players. Robert Walker, in his last film, is particularly effective as the non-athletic son with heretic (read unAmerican) views. If the film had been made a decade or so later, his secret would have been that he was gay, but as this is 1952, the sin is political.

Somewhat paranoiac drama looking at the perceived communist threat in the 40s and 50s. Overwrought in both direction and performance-Helen Hayes in particular seems on the very verge throughout the film. Walker died suddenly during the making of the film and his performance was completed by cobbling together outtakes from Strangers on a Train and the use of a stand-in in some scenes, its easy to pick out most of the these and it cast an odd melancholy pall over the picture. More of an interesting artifact of a troubled time in US history than a good example of film making. McCarey could be an exceptional director who made many fine films and possessed a few Oscars but he is decidedly off his game here. A strange experience.

In viewing My Son John you have to keep a few things in mind. First Leo McCarey directed and wrote the film. Second Leo McCarey was a staunch anti-Communist and part of Hollywood's right wing caucus. Third Leo McCarey was also a devout and practicing Catholic. Fourth Leo McCarey was also one of Hollywood's bigger alcoholics. Put all that together and I think you've got the answer to how My Son John was created.

It's interesting to speculate how My Son John would have turned out if Robert Walker had lived to complete the film. Putting the patchwork ending on the film that he was forced to do left a lot of plot holes. For one thing, I'm not sure exactly why the FBI in the person of Van Heflin was on to Walker. He's a government bureaucrat, a high level one, but we never really learn what he did as a job and what he might have been doing for the Communists.

What Walker is is the oldest son of Dean Jagger and Helen Hayes as a representative a group of middle Americans as you can get. He's quite a bit older than his brothers and made a good academic record and now is a big success in Washington. His two jock younger brothers, Richard Jaeckel and James Young are about to go to war in Korea and he's back home for the family sendoff. You know right away something's amiss when he shows up late, not really having the heart to wish his brothers well in fighting against the Reds in Korea.

How do you spot a Communist? Well if you're Leo McCarey you've got to dislike the Catholic Church you've been brought up in. That's what Walker does, he makes snide remarks about the church and other wholesome American institutions. Man's got to be a subversive as his parents come to realize. Remember Pius XII was Pope at the time and he was a staunch anti-Communist. This is where McCarey's Catholicism comes into play.

How incredibly naive. If Walker were really an effective spy he'd be the loudest amen shouter in church, make the most obviously big contributions in the collection plate etc. to keep his cover.

Frank McHugh reprises his role from Going My Way as Father O'Dowd who apparently has left the mean streets of Hell's Kitchen New York and Barry Fitzgerald and now is pastoring out in the red states. Since McCarey also wrote and directed Going My Way and created McHugh's character he certainly could do what he wanted with him. But for the life of me I can't figure out why McHugh adopted a brogue for this film when he had none in Going My Way.

When Leo McCarey was creating some of the best screen comedy like The Awful Truth and Once Upon A Honeymoon, there were few his peer and none better. But he was out of his league in dealing with political material. And if you're wondering about how this might have turned out if Walker had lived, take a look at McCarey's last film, Satan Never Sleeps. Also an anti-Communist film it makes My Son John look like Citizen Kane.

Apparently, (from the other reviews) if you haven't seen the movie and you are a Communist apologist, you hate the movie, the actors, the script. Too bad for you.

McCarthyism is not the opposite of communism. McCarthy was wrong, but the Red threat was real. There were, and probably still are, communist agents actively working in America. It's history. Go look it up and stop crying.

This is a story of a mother whose heart is breaking because her son is a communist. We don't know much about him, but we know he is a communist. The story isn't about him. It's about the mother and her anguish.

Personally, I started to watch it because of the commie angle. There isn't much. I continued to watch it because of Hayes. I don't watch chick flicks, but my lord, she pulls at your heart strings.

Overall, I found it mildly interesting. The actors are terrific. The story was almost non-existent, despite the pinko protests of bashing the commies. Poor, poor commies.

There is a guy named John who is being followed. His mama notices. She finds out he is a commie. She cries. John is torn between mama and his goal of destroying America. She cries. John searches his soul. She cries. John is torn: How can I do my commie stuff if mama is always crying. Oh, the horror, the pathos.

One more time, kiddies: McCarthyism was wrong. Communism was a real threat. Kruschev wanted to nuke us. George Bernard Shaw thought it was right for the "state" to put to death anyone who did not contribute enough. Mao killed 70 million. Stalin killed 40 million. Add in Italy, the Balkans, Hungary, Poland, Austria, Vietnam, Laos, etc., etc., etc. Communists killed more people than Hitler. They killed before Hitler and after him. Even when Hitler was actively killing people, the communists were killing at a rate three times faster. Just counting the Jews, Russia killed more of them during World War II than Hitler.

This won't be a movie that I watch again. There's no action. The commies just talk. They had enough raincoats, but they didn't fill them with people like Bogart. He would have shot all of those dirty commies. He might even have slapped mama for crying so much.

This movie is known as a "propaganda" film because it has a point of view that the US Govt. approved of. If you choose to believe that Hollywood deliberately put out movies to support our government, you are free to do so. But if you have a brain in your head, I'm sure you realize that Hollywood puts out movies solely to make money. They thought that this movie would sell. The commie threat was big in the news. It was everywhere. They used it for their gain.

Nowadays, the communist threat is not as virulent, and the pinkos are more amusing than annoying. I just hope that they do not start apologizing for bin Laden and the other idiots who now attack America.

Keep your Papa Joe nightlight. Keep your Che t-shirt. Keep reading your little red book from the Chairman. You can deny history as much as you want. As for me, I'm sticking with Thomas Paine, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Captain America.

I have been watching movies for 35 years and follow listings, VHS and DVD releases, and this is one I have YET to come across. Does anyone know WHY it isn't available in some form or the other? Is it lost? Does it need restoration? The content, while out of date, nevertheless, isn't the main issue. It's that this film needs to be seen. What good are films, such as this one, "Porgy and Bess," "The Constant Nymph," etc tied up in estates for no one to see and pass opinions on? I wish there were a website of "unavailable films" where one could reference why certain ones are never heard from. Cable channels too many times show the same films over and over again but never ones that need to be seen.