So Dear to My Heart (1948)

This film was another opportunity to see the talented Bobby Driscoll(possibly the best child actor of all time) and Luana Patten(the epitome of feminine demureness and modesty in a child actress). Although not as good overall as The Song of the South, which featured Driscoll and Patten at a younger age, this film celebrates the anglo-protestant core of America, and the honesty and religious values of America's past before Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson launched us on the road to empire-a road Americans never wanted to travel. The animated beginning is poignant, and the Christian faith that unselfconciously permeates the film portray America's rural past as an idyll, The cast is superb-Harry Carey captures perfectly the kindly rectitude of an older generation of Americans as the chief livestock judge at the county fair-he has the air of a stern but insightful church deacon, touched by and concerned with rewarding the virtues he sees in the emerging generation of his day. Beulah Bondi is superb as the stern but wise and loving grandmother. Each of the adults, even Uncle Hiram(Burl Ives) show a commendable concern for the children, providing not only for their safety but protecting their souls as well. What a wonderful world we once had!