The Bower Family On the urging of Joe Carder (John Davidson), a journalist and suitor to eldest Bower daughter Alice (Lesley Ann Warren), the family decides instead to move to the Dakota Territory. There, Grandpa Bower (Walter Brennan), a staunch Democrat, causes trouble with his pro-Cleveland sentiments. The Dakota residents are overwhelmingly Republican, and they hope to get the territory admitted as two states rather than one(so as to send four Republican senators to Washington rather than two. Grandpa's actions result in family strife.
Based on the book, The Family Band: from the Missouri to the Black Hills, 1881-1900 by Laura Bower Van Nuys. The memoir by Van Nuys, the youngest of the Bower children, described her family's brass band, their journey out of Missouri, and their frontier life in the Black Hills The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band was one of a number of projects Walt Disney was involved with prior to his death. Originally intended as a two part TV special, Disney asked the Sherman Brothers for assistance in punching up the project. Writing the titular song, Disney was so impressed he asked for more songs with the intention of making the film a feature length musical, though Robert Sherman did so under protest feeling the material was insufficient to do so. After the Happiest Millionaire failed at the box office, The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band was heavily trimmed to try and avoid the same fate. Despite the massive trimming done to the movie, the film ended up performing even lower than The Happiest Millionaire and was never reissued to theaters instead serving as a two parter on The Wonderful World of Disney as it was originally intentioned. The movie didn't fare all that better with critics who called the film flat and hokey among other jibes, but even though I don't feel The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band completely works, it's more successful than The Happiest Millionaire by virtue of having scope and an emotional core.
Walter Brennan is definitely a huge asset to the movie, serving as a strong anchor point for the film to be based around. In the film Brennan's Grandpa Bower is a very staunch Democrat who often finds himself at odds with Republicans, including his grown son Calvin and his granddaughter's fiancée Joe Carder. I think that's where the movie really sells itself because much like The Happiest Millionaire the plot of The One and Only, Genuine, Original, Family Band involves Lesley Ann Warren as eldest daughter dealing with loyalty to her family and balancing it against new fiancée who has friction with her family. It definitely makes a more engaging experience than the overlong and underplotted Happiest Millionaire and the fact we have a more commanding actor to serve as an anchor point is a massive improvement over the ill thought out attempt to anchor Fred MacMurray to a musical epic.
The movie is directed by Michael O'Herlihy, a veteran of TV whose work can be in many staples of TV including Star Trek, Mission: Impossible, and M*A*S*H. Despite being more associated with TV productions, O'Herlihy gives the film a feeling of scope and majesty with wide shots showing westward frontiers, beautiful shots of hilly landscapes and sets that are populated by a multitude of extras. While it doesn't match the epicness of the largest of this era of Roadshow Productions, it does carry a sense of weight and scope that give the movie a larger than life feeling. Unfortunately the movie does have a drawback in that it takes its viewer's knowledge of the political and historical climate of 1888 somewhat for granted. While the viewer can for the most part follow the events just fine without prior historical knowledge, there's not all that much clarity in the difference of opinions between the 1888 Democrats and the 1888 Repbulicans. You do get the general idea involving things like statehood for the Dakota territory, but other than that the movie gives us a somewhat limited view and probably could've benefitted from either a text crawl at the beginning explaining the contemporary mindsets or maybe a few more scenes explaining motivation. But despite the movie's very "arms length" approach to politics despite focus on them, the movie is more about family and community dynamics and does a decent job of focusing on those.
The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band has the same structure and arc as Disney's The Happiest Millionaire, but it utilizes it to much better effect here. With a shorter running time and more focus, The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band gives us a good mixture of musical epic and family dynamic that makes the movie a pleasant sit thanks in large part to a strong performance by Walter Brennan as Grandpa Bower. While the 1888 election and arguments for Statehood don't always mesh as well with the musical epic format applied, the movie does a good job of building around it with enough character and drama even if the sides feel rather muddled and hard to distinguish. It doesn't reach the heights of My Fair Lady, Sound of Music, or Mary Poppins as Disney hoped, but it's an admirable attempt.
