Standing by my original feelings about this pleasant but corny MGM "southern" dealing with conflicts over the finished war between the north and the south and how the arrival of a mysterious stranger (Van Johnson) brings at least temporary peace. Barn burning of confederate sympathizers pist-war has northerner locals suspected, and friends for years have stopped speaking. Staying with farmer Thomas Mitchell and his family, Johnson falls in love with his daughter, Janet Leigh, but Mitchell, a southerner, is suspicious of Johnson's politics, which there seems none of. His patient wife, Selena Royle, seems apolitical, and encourages the romance regardless of where he stands.
Then there's the townsfolk, lead by store owner Guy Kibbee and Elisabeth Risdon (who argue exactly like the Olsens from "Little House on the Prairie"), finally agreeing to get together for an attempt at a truce. This leads to a square dance that prompted me to hope that Royle would break out into a variation of "The Farmer and the Cowman" from "Oklahoma!" Indeed, there are several innocuous songs, adding to the corrniness. This was Leigh's first film, and she's lovely and subtle, but upstaged by Dean Stockwell as the younger brother, even though Mitchell and Royle look more like his grandparents. Mitchell is indeed very funny, mixing up words in confusion, a nice little quirk making him more than just another Tom O'Hara ripoff. Beautifully filmed and sweet, but Johnson's character is just too perfect and even tempered to be believable.
Then there's the townsfolk, lead by store owner Guy Kibbee and Elisabeth Risdon (who argue exactly like the Olsens from "Little House on the Prairie"), finally agreeing to get together for an attempt at a truce. This leads to a square dance that prompted me to hope that Royle would break out into a variation of "The Farmer and the Cowman" from "Oklahoma!" Indeed, there are several innocuous songs, adding to the corrniness. This was Leigh's first film, and she's lovely and subtle, but upstaged by Dean Stockwell as the younger brother, even though Mitchell and Royle look more like his grandparents. Mitchell is indeed very funny, mixing up words in confusion, a nice little quirk making him more than just another Tom O'Hara ripoff. Beautifully filmed and sweet, but Johnson's character is just too perfect and even tempered to be believable.