Janie (1944)

Absolutely Fantastic

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

According to TCM, "Janie" was made by Warner Brothers to try to cash in on the success of MGM's Andy Hardy series. Like the Hardy films, "Janie" features a goofy teenager, a well respected father who is often flummoxed, a mother, a sister and a housekeeper....though the father here, Charles Conway (Edward Arnold) seemed a bit more flummoxed as "Janie" seems a bit more likely to make it to second base than Andy.Joyce Reynolds stars as the title character. She only made about a dozen films, so it's safe to say that the series never caught on. In fact, they only made one other film in the series...but with Joan Leslie playing the character. The film's main plot involves Janie's two romances--with her classmate, 'Scooper' as well as a soldier waiting to be shipped out, Dick. To me, "Janie" is only a bit like the Hardy films. Yes, the family constellation is similar but much more shrill and chaotic...sort of like if the Hardys were all crack addicts!! So, the emphasis is less on charm and more on barraging the audience with crazy antics. I am not saying it's necessarily bad...but it's not the Hardys. Some of this is due to the super-bratty little sister...a plot device that wears thin after a while. The sing-a-long in the second half of the film is also problematic--making it seem more like an overtly patriotic film instead of the subtle Harady-style film. And, unlike Andy, you can imagine Janie making it way past first or second base--especially with all those lusty soldiers hanging about during the party sequence! Overall, the film is a moderately enjoyable time passer and nothing more.

Now we know how America won the war. There's more sheer bounce and energy in this 1944 family comedy than in the Nazi invasion of Poland. The gag lines and wisecracks fly faster than speeding bullets, while director-General Raoul Walsh cranks up the movie engine to jet speed. Note the constant movement inside the house as people are always going here and there. Shrewd move-- adapting a film from a stage play is like moving into a a coat closet if you're not careful. Not much of a plot-- something about soldier-boys coming to steal the local girls from their highschool sweethearts, creating a big commotion at the same time.But who cares, with such a great cast right down to bratty little Elspeth who gets all the good lines and does nothing without being paid. Already she's learned our great economic lesson. The trouble is Dad can't figure out the younger generation because he's forgotten his own, while Mom can't seem to figure out which service uniform to wear. But that's alright because she looks good in all of them. And of course there's Janie, all spunk and glow, with her own army of boy-hungry pals. Together, they keep the phones buzzing with enough animal pizazz to light up a defense factory. Check out the cutting-edge teens of the day-- taking a blanket on a "smooching" date with just a few hundred others. Now Dad's in an uproar when he finds out, but that's nothing compared to what he and Mom find after coming home late. There's the sailor in the bedroom, the soldier in the bathroom, and the wall gone flat in the living-room. Naturally, there's an innocent explanation for everything. And, of course, the invading servicemen were nothing but gentlemen the whole time. Hard to believe that boys like these were dying by the thousands on the beach-heads of Normandy and Saipan. None of that here. After all, it's the Janie's of the world, safe and shielded, that the boys were fighting for. Even if it's just 90 minutes, what a great escape from all those other horrors. This is small town America, about to undergo a sea change. You can hear the waves lapping already. It's really not just the army that's come to Hortonville; it's the outside world. And all the malt shops, "smooching" parties, and small town innocence will never be the same once the war ends. This is not only a darn good little comedy-- but also a darn good little time capsule worth preserving.

This was a very comical film starring Edward Arnold, (Charles Conway) who owns a newspaper in Hortonville and he has two daughters Janie Conway, (Joyce Reynolds) who is a pretty teenage girl of 18 years and she has a little sister named Elsbeth Conway, (Clare Foley) who is seven years of age and a great actress in this picture. Janie is a very liked girl in her town and she has many girl friends and one boy friend she grew up with. Charles Conway finds out that the Army are going to be stationed in their town and he is not in favor of this idea and writes editorials about this subject in his paper. The Army does arrive and this creates plenty of problems for the local town folks. However, Janie is always finding ways to have parties and eventually she gets involved with an entire base marching into her house for a party. Clare Foley gave an outstanding performance along with Edward Arnold, Robert Hutton, (Pfc Dick Lawrence). This was a film made during World War II and was a morale builder for the American Fighting men and was very well produced.

Joyce Reynolds seems a might grown-up for the role of Janie, a boy-crazy sixteen-year old in small town America who ditches her steady guy for a visiting soldier AND winds up on the cover of Life magazine (smooching at a blanket party) all in the same week! Non-stop barrage of wisecracks, put-downs, bull talk, and unfunny bits of business such as Janie's little sister bribing family members, Hattie McDaniel (as the maid) constantly scuttling after sassy kid sis, Janie's mother involved with the Red Cross, and Janie's father trying to write an editorial on the problems with today's teenagers (as the parents, stuffy, sexless Edward Arnold and pert, chatty Ann Harding make an unlikely couple, even for 1944; he looks incapable of helping to conceive a child much less raising two of them). Nominated for an Academy Award (!) for Owen Marks' editing, Warner Bros. followed this in 1946 with "Janie Gets Married". Reynolds must have outgrown her co-horts by then--she was replaced by Joan Leslie. *1/2 from ****