A harmless little film from the mid-'40s without a fresh point of view or virtually any originality. Competent performances can't atone for the dullness of the plot and direction.
NATALIE WOOD shines as a sensitive young tomboy who's always quarreling with sister CONNIE MARSHALL and keeps her eye on the romance brewing between older sister MARGUERITE CHAPMAN and a neighbor farmer ROBERT PAIGE.
WALTER BRENNAN is the farming father who's reluctant to listen to good advice from Paige about the possibility of his farm in danger of flooding due to a structural fault from a nearby hill of trees.
There's a low-budget look to the B&W photography of the sort of family film that would have registered more strongly in Technicolor. A string of incidents of no particular consequence make for a weak plot that never manages to be compelling enough to sustain interest in its rural background and cardboard characters.
Only toward the end, during a bad thunderstorm, does the film achieve any sort of visual awakening. Ironically, it was during filming of the storm scene that Natalie accidentally fell into the water and got the scare of her young life--an ironic prediction of how her real life would end so tragically.
ROBERT PAIGE and MARGUERITE CHAPMAN can't manage to be anything but bland as the leads, but Natalie Wood's fans should enjoy her performance. WALTER BRENNAN does his standard grumpy old man act.
NATALIE WOOD shines as a sensitive young tomboy who's always quarreling with sister CONNIE MARSHALL and keeps her eye on the romance brewing between older sister MARGUERITE CHAPMAN and a neighbor farmer ROBERT PAIGE.
WALTER BRENNAN is the farming father who's reluctant to listen to good advice from Paige about the possibility of his farm in danger of flooding due to a structural fault from a nearby hill of trees.
There's a low-budget look to the B&W photography of the sort of family film that would have registered more strongly in Technicolor. A string of incidents of no particular consequence make for a weak plot that never manages to be compelling enough to sustain interest in its rural background and cardboard characters.
Only toward the end, during a bad thunderstorm, does the film achieve any sort of visual awakening. Ironically, it was during filming of the storm scene that Natalie accidentally fell into the water and got the scare of her young life--an ironic prediction of how her real life would end so tragically.
ROBERT PAIGE and MARGUERITE CHAPMAN can't manage to be anything but bland as the leads, but Natalie Wood's fans should enjoy her performance. WALTER BRENNAN does his standard grumpy old man act.