That Brennan Girl (1946)

Touches You

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Mona Freeman was brought up by a tough, money-hungry, shady, single mother -- June Duprez in quite a change from her role in THE THIEF OF BAGDAD -- and soon falls in with grifting James Dunn. When she steals a watch from a drunk military man, Dunn shows some patriotism and tells her to give it back.... and she winds up married, a war widow and struggling to keep her baby in this movie directed by Alfred Santell.Miss Freeman was 20 when she made this movie, but she always seemed younger than she was, a factor which hampered her screen career; in this, she looks quite convincing in the opening scene as a 14-year-old girl buying a flower for her mother. She gives a fine, layered performance, but the script, from a story by Adele Rogers St. John, tries to cover too many bases, half tough-girl drama, half weepy-mother-loses-baby soap, with a dose of judicial moralizing and a dash of miraculous intervention. As a result, her characterization, and that of James Dunn, fresh off an Academy Award win for A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN may seem not so much nuanced as inconsistent.I think not. I think it's a good movie, although I find the first half more interesting. That, however, is largely because I don't care for weepy melodramas. Judging by the record, no one was particularly impressed by this picture at the time. Dunn's career resumed its slide, aided by alcoholism; Freeman worked in minor movies for another ten years, then in television until 1972; and Santell, whose directorial career had begun in 1916, and who lived until 1981, never directed another movie.

When Mona Freeman was given a chance to expand her range on "That Brennan Girl" she jumped at the chance. In the Adela Rogers St. John story she was required to age from 11 to 25 but critics weren't impressed and felt her performance didn't rise to the weighty story. The truth was she looked too young and that seemed to be why her career never got off the ground. Her first part was going to be as Barbara Stanwyck's step daughter in "Double Indemnity" but she was replaced as she photographed like a young teen, another part that was taken from her was as Elizabeth Taylor's older sister in "National Velvet", she was thought to look younger than Taylor so Angela Lansbury replaced her.If Freeman looked too young - she makes poor James Dunn look ancient!! With his weather beaten face (courtesy of too much alcohol) he looked just too old and careworn to be playing a hot shot con man full of big ideas! He didn't win an Academy Award for nothing (although it did nothing to boost his career) and he really comes into his own and gives out some Irish charm in the scenes with his mother.This film is a showcase for Mona and from the time she is introduced as her mother's sister she becomes an eager pupil for her mother's creed - which is "don't let your looks go to waste, take men for everything you can get and you can never start too young"!!! After being expelled from school she is plunged into Natalie's world and catches the eye of fast talking Denny (Dunn) who gives her a job convincing customers (usually older, well heeled ones) that when moving house they simply must use "Denny's Removalists" - and that is usually the last people see of their precious possessions!!When Ziggy meets naval officer, Martin Neilson, she falls for his obvious sincerity but when she finds herself a war widow with a baby it is all too easy to slip back into club life. This movie has more plots than a "soapie" and you just know things are not going to be good when the young high school girl (Shirley Mills) that Ziggy has hired is keener to go riding with the boys than stay put looking after the baby. The juvenile authorities are alerted and suddenly Ziggy is up before a judge on a suspended sentence and the baby is in care!!It was a big stretch to have beautiful June Duprez (for whom Technicolor seemed to be made ie "The Four Feathers", "The Thief of Bagdad" etc) and who was only 8 years older than Mona Freeman having to play her mother!! She pulled it off though, looking like a big sister in the first scenes but later looking much older as her playgirl lifestyle catches up with her. She was British but quickly went to Hollywood to cash in on her fame and as the British equivalent to Maria Montez but unfortunately her agent asked for too high a salary and she found herself almost unemployable.

I saw this film last night on Youtube and it's remarkably good. Mona Freeman gives a stunning performance as Ziggy, the young and troubled heroine of the movie.This is the kind of part that somebody like Jean Simmons or even Audrey Hepburn might have fitted well into. And Mona Freeman's acting here stands up to anything they might have done in the part. The rest of the cast are equally fine. Had this movie been made by one of the bigger studios of the day it would,I think, have been better none. It certainly deserves to be better none as it's definitely more than a B picture.

When I say that this is a strange film, this is not an insult. It's just one of those rare films that you can't categorize and is like nothing else.Mona Freeman plays 'Ziggy' Brennan--a young and very irresponsible young lady. The film then goes back in time and you see how she developed into the seemingly sociopathic lady she'd become when the film began. Her mother had absolutely no motherly feelings towards her and Ziggy grew up finding mostly for herself. At first she's a nice kid but given her upbringing she soon spirals into a good-time girl and thief. Rather inexplicably, she falls in love with a nice sailor during the war but he's soon killed--leaving her pregnant and almost completely incompetent when it comes to parenting. Can she make a go of it or are she and the baby doomed? Tune in and see.The reason this is such an off film is that Freeman does not exactly play a sympathetic character and the story is, at least until late in the film, is unlike the usual Hollywood formulaic pieces. It does sink into sentimentality a tad at the end, but this worked as most really would not want to see a film with absolutely no sense of redemption or change. This is nice and the film is worth a look.