User Reviews

Frank Morgan is not a Wizard here, but instead is a public servant, a man of the law who claims he is a man of the law, not of the people. Yet it is his service to the people that is important. The historic era of pre-1929 Virginia is portrayed here, based on the book account of what Lynchberg Virginia was like prior to 1929. While some might not appreciate Morgan as an actor, he shines in this one as Robert Yancey.

Robert is a Lynchberg District Attourney, elected for 10 terms to serve Lynchberg. Spring Byington as his wife Rosa keeps asking for him to stop running for re-election to the post but until he finally is defeated in 1929, he serves faithfully the people of Lynchberg. The family has daughters Kathryn Grayson ( Rebecca Yancey) who is a singer and is a bright light here much less a natural beauty who can not hide it from the camera, and Natalie Thompson (Margaret Yancey) plus another daughter and son has a full family life including the family servants in their traditional Lynchberg home.

Women's rights do get promoted here as one daughter (Margaret) wants to be her lawyer despite her father's wishes to the contrary. Rebecca actually drives the car (a Stanley Steamer) in the film. In a way, while this movie makes mention of the rights of Americans and that everyone should be free to do what they wish (a good message at the onset of World War 2), this film brings up many issues but does not try to push propaganda. In fact the biggest controversy is seemingly prohibition. The opinion prevailing here is that you can't enforce a law that too many people are against. Of course the film ends in 1929 during prohibition, but the message is clear.

As a historic account of what this country and family life was like in this era, this is an important film. There is a large black cast and there is even a sequence of one of Robert Yancy's black employees dying and the not usual event of Robert Yancy (Morgan) his white boss, getting to deliver a eulogy to him. This film is a look at a family that gets along with everyone, no matter who they are.

It does address race relations in surprising ways for a movie made while even the US Military was still segregated. This film is just overall well done.

The summary on IMDb for this one is perhaps the worst I have ever seen. It really does NOT describe the film at all and looks as if whoever wrote it never even saw this film! So, let me summarize the film....a bit.

This is a highly nostalgic film about the good 'ol days. In particular, it focuses on the upper-middle class family, the Yancey's who live in Lynchburg, Virginia in 1913. Mr. Yancey (Frank Morgan) is the city prosecutor--a well respected lawyer who folks want to see run for his seventh term. His wife is the ever-faithful Rosa (Spring Byington) and they have five kids--including two girls of very marriageable age. Rebecca Yancey (Kathryn Grayson) is smitten with a new lawyer who has come to town--but Mrs. Yancey is concerned because the young man's mother is 'no good' because she is a divorcée and once dated Mr. Yancey. In addition to the Yanceys, the household consists of two black servants and two of the servants' grandkids. As for the story, it is a series of vignettes that give us a glimpse of these decent people.

So is this film any good? Well, this is a very, very difficult thing to answer in just a few words. For its time, it is exquisitely crafted and has all the sentimentality (and then some) you'd expect from an MGM production. Some may balk at Ms. Grayson's singing--you'll either love it or you'll hate it (I am in the latter group and felt it was often unnecessary). However, the reason I cannot say it's a wonderful film is that in some ways it's a very racist film. All the black people are exceptionally well treated and seem to enjoy their subservient roles in society. And everyone (blacks and whites) get along so gosh-darn well--something that might have been true, at least superficially. However, the lynchings, name-calling and other aspects of Southern Virginia society are of course absent, as they didn't fit into this perfect image that Louis B. Mayer insisted in with his films. It's lovely...but also rather overly idealized.

By the way, one of the more interesting actresses in the film is Elizabeth Patterson who plays Mr. Yancey's mother. Only a few years later, Patterson starred in probably the best film on race done during the 1940s, "Intruder in the Dust". Unlike "The Vanishing Virginian", this film exposed the ugly side of Southern society--the racist, evil side bent on lynching a black man simply because they can. And, Patterson's character is one of the only ones in town willing to stand up to these thugs. See this film...skip "The Vanishing Virginian".

I'm a Yankee...born and raised near Rochester, NY. However, I spent most of my adult life living in Virginia. As I read through the reviews already posted here, I saw that old tug of war that we sometimes see in reviews of "Gone With The Wind" -- reviewing the historical culture versus reviewing the film. We have to remember a few things about this story. First, it is about real people. not fictional characters. I tried a little online research, and could find little that gave me any clear indication of what kind of man Robert Yancy was in real life. Perhaps he was a bit enlightened for the turn of the 20th century. Or perhaps he was Simon Legree in disguise. I don't think any of us know which case it was, or where reality was on the continuum for this particular man and his family. And, I'm old enough to have known older African-American people who just wanted to "get along". So I'm not going to make any assumptions about what the truth was about these real people. And I'm going to keep in mind that the story is based on a daughter's recollection of her father. One day, I was visiting some Civil War cemeteries near Fredericksburg, and while I was looking at some graves in the Union cemetery, across the road there was a family putting flowers on a Confederate grave. Let's not make stereotypical assumptions about specific people we didn't know who lived over a hundred years ago.

Now as to the movie, this film was notable for me for two reasons. First, one of my favorite character actors was Frank Morgan. He turned in some wonderful supporting roles in many films. But unfortunately, when MGM put him in a lead, it was usually in a second rate comedy with a weak script. This film, on the other hand, was Morgan's opportunity to star in a reasonably high quality production, and the film did him well, and he turned in an admirable performance.

Others in the cast did well, also. If the basic family story is true, I guess it made sense for a little singing by "daughter" Kathryn Grayson, who did fine here. Spring Byington was always a delightful character actress, and she was a perfect match for Frank Morgan. Douglass Newland (Johnny Mitchell) was decent as the love interest for Grayson. Another fine character actress -- Elizabeth Patterson -- was just fine as "Grandma". The ill-fated Scotty Beckett was perfect as the son...always a fine child actor who met a tragic end. Leigh Whipper was excellent as Uncle Josh, an African-American servant, as was the venerable Louise Beavers.

Don't get me wrong. No family is this perfect. But after all, it's the remembrance of a loving daughter for her father and mother. It's a heartwarming film, and it you're into that type of movie -- and I often am -- this is really well done. It's better, I think, than another movie I really admire: "Life With Father"