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Strong and Moving!

Simply A Masterpiece

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

A professionally made, good-looking, but ridiculous, bad movie. The further it goes, the more preposterous the plot becomes, until it reaches a crescendo of implausible nonsense at the end. There is far too much inept rehashing of elements from "It's a Wonderful Life", with Stewart doing an impersonation of himself as George Bailey. There are places, particularly when his character is drunk in public, that are unpleasant to watch. Nice to see Ned Sparks and Donald Meek in their farewell appearances. Jane Wyman shows great legs in the basketball gym scene, but I can't believe they paid somebody a lot of money to give her that horrid hairdo.

James Stewart is back as Mr. Smith, but this time he isn't that naive country bumpkin who became a Senator and went to Washington. Here, he's a cynical New York idea man whose recent business (collecting public opinion) has failed. Smith gets the idea of going to Granview, a medium sized town whose statistics perfectly match the national average. Wanting to find out what makes this town tick and stay so quaint, Stewart and his cohorts (Donald Meek and Ned Sparks) go there where they upset the apple cart by convincing the town council that they don't need to go along with newspaper editor Jane Wyman's plans to expand the town and bring in new business. Wyman plants a negative story about Stewart in the paper, and their confrontation turns to attraction and leads to romance. Stewart keeps the truth about his true identity to himself, and when the story breaks, Grandview is all of a sudden a mecca for people looking for Ideal Town U.S.A. But as fast as interest explodes, it declines, making the people of Grandview come off as fools and desperate for a way not to be categorized as a national joke.Robert Riskin, who spent years as Frank Capra's writer for such classics as "Mr. Deeds" and "Mr. Smith", is away from Capracorn here, and instead has William Wellman (director of 1937's "A Star is Born") in charge. Producing as well as writing, Riskin utilizes all of the tricks that made Capra's corny tales so popular, but comes up with a concept so convoluted and irritating that it ends up being an overly chatty mess. Still, he has a great cast of Hollywood's best character actors to work with, and two extremely popular stars in Stewart and Wyman, fresh from Oscar Nominated work in "It's a Wonderful Life" and "The Yearling", respectively. Crusty Ned Sparks, who must have been the offspring of a dill pickle and an overripe lemon, is the Walter Matthau of his era, and always funny. The appropriately named Donald Meek is a Wallace Shawn ("The Princess Bride", "My Dinner With Andre") look-alike. These were possibly the last appearances of both, and even with the film's mediocrity, a great swan song for them.The problem with the film is that it doesn't seem to know when to quit, which towards the end makes the film come off as pretentious and quite obnoxious. Stewart, the epitome of the "every man", got a disappointing follow-up to "Wonderful Life", while Wyman is never totally likable as the driven editor. There are some amusing moments, and it is touching to see Stewart reaching out to the teenagers of the town, but when all is said and done, "Magic Town" ends up as one of the biggest duds of the 40's.

Magic Town (1947)Just after his legendary (or now legendary) performance in "It's a Wonderful Life," James Stewart plays another regular guy who wants to cut his way through life differently. The director here is William Wellman, a seasoned everyday director, lacking maybe the initiative and originality of the great directors, but working with good materials.There are a couple things at work here beyond the plot of a pollster looking for a shortcut to success. The first is how a small American town is used to talk about America itself, an idealized (and homogenous) cross section of what is best about the country. In a way, Grandview is a bit like Bedford Falls of "It's a Wonderful Life." It's an ideal people wanted to re-establish after the war, the sunny counterpart to the film noir side of Hollywood. Another thing is Stewart himself, who has so much personality and regular guy magic, he makes the movie, regardless of the rest of it.The rest of it is wonderful enough--Jane Wyman (Ronald Reagan's first wife--they were still married for this film) as the leading lady and inevitable love interest, and realistic counterpart to Stewart's dreamer. And there is a whole slew of established contract players who are character actors and journeymen of the type that populated Hollywood still back then.This is no searing classic, for sure, but it's endlessly funny, warm, and cheerful. By the end you'll be cheering for the good guys but you'll also (I assume) be moaning at the ridiculous optimism of it all. It's a feel-good story that feels a little too good. All the same, it feels good. Fun.

I enjoyed seeing this picture again and realised that it was written for a more innocent age and would not be enjoyed by a more sophisticated audience of today. But, if you're into nostalgia and willing to forego your modern day cynicism, you'll delight in seeing this film.