Curiously, directed by two individuals, W. S Van Dyke and Herbert Kline, this story is quite an original one, focusing in on the trauma suffered by children during the second world war. It was the film debut of the five year old Margaret O'Brien as the titular Margaret and the final film of co-director, Dyke, who was perhaps best known for some of the films in the Andy Hardy and Thin Man series. A useful man to Hollywood when you consider his "one take Woody" sobriquet, however, he was dead a year after the release of Journey to Margaret: diagnosed with heart disease and cancer, he tragically committed suicide. His cohort, Kline, was largely a documentary maker and indeed, the best scenes of the movie show hellish, nightmarish images of a blitzed London. To modern sensibilities, the action and dialogue are often melodramatic, but one must consider it is of its time and the war was still raging. In the acting stakes, Robert Young is a likeable enough presence as the leading man, Laraine Day is the nominal leading lady but really only bookends the film. Much of the heavy lifting is done by children-the aforementioned O'Brien and William Severn, the former, of course, went on to be a major star, particularly as a youngster, though her career had longevity. Here she is eerily precocious, 5 going on 45! Severn didn't take his acting career beyond childhood but is amusingly quirky in this outing. Amongst the adult supporting cast, the wonderfully characterful Halliwell Hobbes is wasted in a potential surrogate father role but Fay Bainter brings great warmth and a touch of enjoyable mischief to what, on paper, could have been a righteous, goody two shoes, as the lady in charge of a childrens' home and Nigel Bruce has an unusually straight and shrewd role as a friend and confidant to Young and though it is not the best of roles, he brings his trademark avuncularity and twinkle to proceedings. The film is short at 80 minutes and is worth watching for some memorable cinematography, touches of humour and able character acting.
Review of Journey for Margaret
