Tuesday, December 26, 2023

Room for One More (1952)

Cary Grant and Betsy Drake play a married couple (they apparently were married at this time, so maybe not that much acting?) with a busy house. Three kids, a big dog, a cat that has a bunch of kittens. Into this chaos is added first one child, then another, because Drake's heart must have more holes than a colander from how much it bleeds.

Jane (Iris Mann) bounced from foster family to foster family, and it shows in her hostility and wariness towards any action. Hiding leftovers from dinner under her pillow, reacting to being asked to help with clean-up by insisting she's no servant. She sleeps with the light on, and recoils from Drake's initial displays of affection. Later, they add Jimmy John (Clifford Tatum). Initially just bringing him along on their 2-week vacation. He wears legs braces, talks very little, and spends his time between the hospital and school.

In each case it's Drake who manages the thaw, as Grant maintains a skeptical distance, at one point asking in relation to Jane if Dillinger ever had a kid. With Jane, Drake helps her get some babysitting jobs to have money of her own. With Jimmy, she takes the more unconventional route of taking him for a drive, asking if he can drive, and when he won't respond, taking her hands off the steering wheel.

Grant plays the father as put-upon and sarcastically grouchy. Horny too, as his attempts at some alone time with Drake are constantly thwarted by one kid's issue or another's. When he tries to explain to Jimmy where babies come from, Drake finds the diagram he drew (which we don't see) in the sand of a woman. When told it's a poor drawing, Grant replies, 'I was working from memory.'

Still, he's slowly won over, especially as he sees all the kids starting to get along. The movie glosses over some of that development, which makes it seem a little abrupt, especially with Jane. But we see the start of the thaw, and by the time Jimmy's added to the mix, we see how well Jane's integrated into the family.

No comments: