La mamma non torna più

Seven-year old Jackie "Butch'' Jenkins (as "Little Jim" Tukker) and his cute dog "Wolf" are missing. Stationed in a wealthy military town, handsome father James Craig (as "Big Jim" Tukker) gets fellow officers to help search for his son. Uncommonly cheerful Chinese servant Ching Wah Lee (as Sui Jen) is frantic. Pretty wife Frances Gifford (as Jean) finds young Jenkins and the family returns to thinking about a "coming bundle from Heaven." Before the blessed event, Jenkins celebrates his eighth birthday. At his birthday party, the lucky tyke greedily gets more gifts than most kids get at Christmas...

Jenkins receives a bicycle from his parents and a knife from Mr. Ching, who shows uncommon patience in teaching Jenkins how the pedal. Unfortunately, this happy family receives some sad news. About 45 minutes into the running time, director Fred Zinnemann tries a strange scene which may be part-imaginary. Jenkins enters an empty, candlelit bedroom and watches his mother sleep. Dark topics and "Leave It to Beaver"-style antics next turn into a story about clashing "oriental" and mainstream cultures. The film's intentions may be honorable, but the overall effect is awkward and uneven.

***** Little Mister Jim (3/14/47) Fred Zinnemann ~ Jackie "Butch'' Jenkins, James Craig, Ching Wah Lee, Frances Gifford

Butch Jenkins loses his mother and has to deal with a grieving father who's unable to reconcile his own loss with his son's needs. Sound familiar? Tough, macho unfeeling guys really are sensitive underneath, is the message here. The merit of this film is the presence of Spring Byington, Morris Ankrum and a number of studio folks who were churning out these very sentimental post WW2 films. There was still a lot angst as the war was still fresh in everyone's mind and feelings of loss were abundant. This film builds on that theme adding the stress of the effect of a kid losing his mother and difficulties with his father. While this is not a great film, it has much to recommend it. It's sentimental without being maudlin, although I doubt if it would have any of the impact on today's kids as it did on me when I saw it at age 9. No video and I've yet to see it on the late show, but who knows? If it shows up in your program guide, check it out.

The screenplay of this film must have been written by a 3rd grader, and its director a 2nd grader. So if you have an intelligence level above those grades, don't waste your time on this nauseating pablum. Instead watch any episode of "Leave It To Beaver"; it will be a Shakespearian masterpiece by comparison.

Enough said… except maybe Ggaaaggh!!

Since much of this film is the kind of sentimental tripe offered up by Hollywood in the post-war era, it would not have rated as highly with me if it wasn't for the very strong and clear underlying message about cultural bigotry. The character of the Chinese servant, Sui Jen, has a huge impact on the boy who has lost his mother. When the father ceases to be emotionally available to his son, he steps in to fill the void. He teaches the kid important lessons, and then teaches others to the father. While all the other characters in the film are the same, cardboard cut-out, fifties' types, Sui Jen's is a gentle rebel in his subservient role. For example, when the father is too wrapped up in his own grief, and drink, to buy his son new clothes, Sui Jen gets him Chinese clothes. The point is made. When busy-body neighbor women are aghast that the boy is learning about more than one God, the chaplain investigates and learns that the boy knows The Lord's Prayer in Chinese! And then the kid tells him that 'in heaven, they understand all languages!' Much of what this film portrays is bland, predictable and pedestrian, but it is the references to cultural differences that set it apart from other films of its ilk.