Wordiezett So much average

Listonixio Fresh and Exciting

Cleveronix A different way of telling a story

Kaelan Mccaffrey Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

secondtake Room for One More (1952)Cary Grant is in his everyman, humorous, relaxed form here, and is great. His counterpart, Betsy Drake (playing his wife) is no Irene Dunne, and as "good" as she is (in every sense of the word), she's just filler. And so that leaves the children, who all play important roles if bit parts overall, filling out the family.If you can't tell, this is a story about adoption and foster care. It's about having a family of three and finding room for one (or two) more, no matter what the troubled past and difficulties. Everyone's heart is in the right place, and it almost reads like a wonderful public service announcement.And that's a lot of the trouble here. There is little realism to the troubles the family might face (or even the depths of love they will find, frankly). It's all a bit superficial and glib, and you want to overlook this to give credit to the good intentions, but it's not a way to make a great movie. Add the ongoing theme of the husband feeling neglected (sexually) by his wife, which loses it's humor quickly, and you see a very 1950s movie in scope and depth.On the other hand, the acting and production are really good overall, and if you just skip the writing on almost every level you can enjoy a lot of what is happening here. It happens to be very well filmed (by the cinematographer favored by Hitchcock in these years, Robert Burks) and the score is a Max Steiner staple (which means very good). So I laughed, I cried, and I liked Cary Grant a lot (and he has a huge number of great little quips, so many that I wonder if he added many of them). That's not so bad for this kind of movie.

Ken West I have been a grouchy, childless, curmudgeon for the last 30 years. OK, 40. I especially get cranky with movies of easy sentimentality and clumsy "messages", eg., about patriotism or religion or love or whatever.So, I have no idea why I bothered to tune into this movie, (other than it featuring Cary Grant), since the listing told me everything I needed to not watch it: children, family, adoption, disabilities, etc. Once into it, however, I just had to keep watching. It surely has all sorts of sentimentality, and blatant messages about adoption and the Boy Scouts; however the writing is so wonderfully deft, and the performances (including those of the children) so perfectly understated that I was fully engaged and easily able to forgive the more obvious "message moments" such as Jane being the belle of the ball, and Jimmy-John's predictable physical and emotional transformation into an Eagle Scout.Perhaps being a boy scout, and perhaps remembering a sister's first big dance helps to suck you in, but there are eye-stinging moments enough for anyone, such as Jane refusing her (foster)mother's kiss, and the kids in the orphanage playground stopping their noisy play to watch anxiously the visitors looking at them from the balcony.Next Sunday I'm going to watch the golf, dammit.

bkoganbing Although Cary Grant is first billed and narrates the story, the central character of Room For One More is Grant's then wife Betsy Drake. The film is based on the memoirs and true story of Anna Rose who after having three children of her own, goes out and takes in more for foster care. In real life the Roses had four foster children, here we only see presumably the first two.Drake is one of those people who just can't resist taking in a stray anything. In addition to kids, she and Grant take in dogs, and cats, and even a rabbit which does its multiplying thing in short order. The two foster kids are Iris Mann an unloved and unlovely teenager who with a real home blossoms like Cinderella.Clifford Tatum, Jr. is more of a problem, he's a sullen kid equipped with Forrest Gump like braces. Grant and Drake achieve something of a miracle with him as well. Room For One More is one of a series of films where the married and domesticated Cary Grant is more in evidence. You could also include Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House and Houseboat as that same type of film. It was a new dimension for an older star and Grant handled it very well. Highlight has to be his talk with young Tatum about the facts of life after Tatum is caught trying to satisfy his own curiosity.The climax is young Tatum becoming an Eagle Scout and overcoming his physical handicaps. The film seems to be almost a commercial for the Foster Care system and for the Boy Scouts. Since the time Room For One More Was Made, both institutions have come in for their share of criticism from various sources.In 1962 Room For One More was made into a television series by Warner Brothers starring Andrew Duggan and Peggy McCay, but it only lasted for one season.But the film has endured as a family classic and likely to remain so. The leads are in fine form and they get good support from the adult and child supporting cast.

Fred Goodwin I loved this film. It is the story of a family (Cary Grant and Betsy Drake starring as "Poppy" and Anna Rose) who take in a couple of orphaned children, and the various mi-adventures and calamities that result.I enjoyed the way the film dealt with some real-life issues, like how the financially-strapped couple would deal with the added costs of taking in another child, how "natural" children deal with adopted children, and how "normal" children deal with disabled children. Some of the scenes aren't pretty; in the current era of political-correctness, we sometimes forget how mean children could be to one another back in those days.There are several scenes in the movie that involve the Boy Scouts. As a Scouter myself, these were my favorite parts. I especially liked the Eagle ceremony, and I really noticed how the Pledge of Allegiance, as said in 1952, omits "under God", which wasn't added until 1954! Another thing I noticed: George Winslow, who played "Teenie" in this movie, later played a Cub Scout in "Mister Scoutmaster" (1953) starring Clifton Webb and Frances Dee.Scouting played a prominent role in both films, which evidenced the place of Scouting in American society of the 1950s. For those of us currently involved in Scouting, we can only look with nostalgia at how Scouting was viewed at that time: as a wholesome activity for boys, unburdened with all the baggage of the political-correctness of our times.Whether you're a Scouter or not, I think (unless you're totally jaded) that you and your children will really enjoy this heartwarming story of Scouting in an extended family.