Hayley Mills once said this was the worst of the six films she made for Disney, and she was right, although it did quite well at the box office.
It's based on Mother Carey's Chickens, that book which RKO filmed in the 1930s and Katherine Hepburn refused to do. The plot is slice of life Americana - Dorothy McGuire moves her family, including daughter Mills, to an old farm.
The thing is, it doesn't feel like a farm because it's all clearly shot on the Disney backlot with unconvincing back projection. There are several Sherman brothers songs so it's a musical.
Deborah Walley perks things up a little as a bitch. Her learning to bond with her poorer rellies forms the guts of the plot.
McGuire nods her head and smiles winsomely as she often did in those late 50s early 60s films she was in starring teen idols (A Summer Place, Susan Slade). Burl Ives smiles and sings. Two random handsome men turn up - James Stacy and Peter Brown - to be love interests to Walley and Mills but I got them confused. Michael J Pollard is in it plus some redhead kid who sings.
Everyone wears period clothes - bonnets, and weird hats when driving. Picks up in the second half.
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