Beholds Spirit Film of 1949
Come to the Stable
Two nuns decide to build a children’s hospital in a small town, without any money or specific plans. They choose the town based on a post card they had received, then choose the site. Next comes trying to convince the land owner to donate his property. The comic touches that fill this film raise a fairly standard film about faith into something very special.
Uplifting Films: Brian’s 1949 Favorite Films
Adam’s Rib
A comic courtroom film where a husband and wife (Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn) becoming dueling attorneys in a case about a woman who shot her cheating husband. How this package holds one of the era’s best romantic comedies is splendid, especially given the feminist point of view that dominates.
In the Good Old Summertime
A remake of The Shop Around the Corner, this is an amusing musical with Judy Garland. Two combative coworkers begin corresponding with love pen pals through newspaper classifieds, unaware they are writing to each other. Songs include the title song, “Meet Me Tonight in Dreamland,” and “I Don’t Care.”
Kind Hearts and Coronets
What could be merely a gimmick film (actor Alec Guiness plays nine characters in the film), becomes an enjoyable and insightful comedy of manners that makes fun of social conventions, mass murder, and adultery. And yet you still leave the film feeling uplifted.
The Secret Garden
An orphaned little girl is sent to live with her crotchety uncle in England. She discovers an abandoned walled garden, untouched since her uncle’s wife died. The girl decides to keep the garden a secret among the children and works to begin restoring it.