There's a solid cast and high production values but jeez this was hard going. It's over two hours long and lacks gags and charm. Hayley Mills is fine in the lead - these sort of parts are hard to play but she's perfectly likeable.
It really needs more villains, or scariness, or romance, or, I don't know, drama. Some of this works - Hayley winding up crippled and all the townsfolk gathered around to visit; the performances of Mills and Agnes Moorehead (who totally gets the genre); the softening of grumpy Adolphe Menjou who adopts Kevin Corcoran (and yes there's dodgy overtones to that these days but I went with it).
But there are too many flaws. For starters the town is that miserable when Pollyanna arrives. It's a normal town. Nancy Olson's maid is just an idiot; are we meant to find her romance with James Drury, who just kisses in the main street without asking, charming? Jane Wyman isn't that strict. Pollyanna doesn't help Richard Egan. It's just Wyman is a bit up tight for Egan. And did I mention it goes too long?
It was a box office disappointment even though Mills did win an Oscar - presumably this was in part because a new child star invoked pleasant memories of the 1930s.
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