Review of Mokey

Mokey (1942)
6/10
Mother In Training
28 September 2009
Mokey as played by Bobby Blake way before he was Barretta is a young boy who hasn't quite adjusted to losing his mother when father Dan Dailey brings home a new bride in Donna Reed. Though they never exactly say what Dailey did for a living, it's plain to see he's a traveling man and his son needs a mom at home.

Donna Reed is not yet the All American mom that she played in It's A Wonderful Life and later on television in The Donna Reed Show. Mary Bailey and Donna Stone would have known exactly what to do with young master Blake. But here she's a decent woman in a bit over her head in trying to bond with her husband's son.

Though the location is not specified, we can make certain assumptions that it is the rural South that the story is set. Before Reed enters the picture, we see that Blake has been raised by a lot of the black help that Dailey has hired and they haven't done a bad job of it either. He's friends with the family of Etta McDaniel the maid. She's the younger sister of Hattie McDaniel and gives the best performance in the film.

Another standout is that of young Bobby Stebbins who plays a slightly older kid of some white trash parents who represents all kinds of bad temptation to Blake.

Mokey came from MGM's B picture unit and doesn't have a whole lot of production values. Still it's not a bad family film with some slight resemblance to Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird.
10 out of 10 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

Recently Viewed