Room for One More (1952)

Good concept, poorly executed.

Don't listen to the negative reviews

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Anne (Betsy Drake) and Poppy Rose (Cary Grant) are a loving couple with three kids after losing the fourth. On a PTA tour of an orphanage, the selfless Anne is taken with the children. When the group is shown the older unwanted kids, everybody walks away except Anne. Jane is a troubled child who tried to kill herself. She's bitter with trust issues. They win her over and then Anne picks angry handicapped orphan Jimmy-John.This starts like a sentimental hurricane. Jane is a real tear jerker. They do switch to Jimmy-John who is a more difficult battle. I wonder if the movie loses a bit of steam by sidelining Jane's story. The characters are compelling and heart-wrenching. It has a few fun scenes mostly with Grant pulling off gags. It's just a very touching movie.

Real-life marrieds Cary Grant and Betsy Drake as a loving couple who adopt needy children. Perhaps trying to erase the stigma--the negative curiosity--from adoption and foster families that was highly prevalent in the early-'50s, screenwriters Jack Rose and Melville Shavelson (working from Anna Perrot Rose's book) go a little nutty providing these particular children with a happy ending. Drake is appropriately warm and buttery, but Grant (uncomfortably referred to as "Poppy" Rose, as if he were in his 70s) has the stern look of concentration that unfortunately never slides into bemusement. His "Poppy" is supposed to be wary of his wife's desire to fill the house with kids, but Grant seems a bit anxious at finding an actual character to portray. He's just relying on externals here, and the slightest sneer of discontent shows through. Story transformed into a TV series some ten years later. ** from ****

I have been a grouchy, childless, curmudgeon for the last 30 years. OK, 40. I especially get cranky with movies of easy sentimentality and clumsy "messages", eg., about patriotism or religion or love or whatever.So, I have no idea why I bothered to tune into this movie, (other than it featuring Cary Grant), since the listing told me everything I needed to not watch it: children, family, adoption, disabilities, etc. Once into it, however, I just had to keep watching. It surely has all sorts of sentimentality, and blatant messages about adoption and the Boy Scouts; however the writing is so wonderfully deft, and the performances (including those of the children) so perfectly understated that I was fully engaged and easily able to forgive the more obvious "message moments" such as Jane being the belle of the ball, and Jimmy-John's predictable physical and emotional transformation into an Eagle Scout.Perhaps being a boy scout, and perhaps remembering a sister's first big dance helps to suck you in, but there are eye-stinging moments enough for anyone, such as Jane refusing her (foster)mother's kiss, and the kids in the orphanage playground stopping their noisy play to watch anxiously the visitors looking at them from the balcony.Next Sunday I'm going to watch the golf, dammit.

I watched this movie when I was much younger and the last time I viewed it on television was in 1987 -- this is the kind of movie you track down, because it is a truly a classic -- Cary Grant's and Betsy Drake's performances in this film are so outstanding and so real-life -- He is one comical guy, but sexy too! This movie takes one back to their life in their early years long ago, when living and even being short on funds was as brittle as it is today! I really enjoyed this movie so much, that I hunted it down and finally found it and I watch it all the time now -- I just love Cary Grant -- one of Hollywood's finest! This movie proves that, so watch and enjoy viewing the kind of lives people used to live and life was honestly worth living!