A Brilliant Conflict

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

If you don't like sentimental movies, run from this but if you do like them you will no doubt be moved by a great performance by May Robson. Miss Robson, one of the 1930's most beloved character actresses, made 63 films and starred in about ten. GRAND OLD GIRL is one of those. The seventyish actress portrays Miss Bailes, a small town principal whose whole life is her students. In her 38 years of teaching, it seems she has taught practically the whole town including it's most famous graduate, the current (unnamed) President of the United States. Miss Bailes' concern for the welfare of her students goes beyond the classroom and for some somewhat unclear reasons, several of the town's leading businessmen and school board members have gotten tired of her meddling, presumably feeling it's hurting their businesses. When Miss Bailes opens a "wholesome" malt shop (as opposed to the one with a vice back room with gambling and booze that is run by her erstwhile student Alan Hale) a fight breaks out in the shop on opening night which incredibly is sufficient grounds for the townsmen to have the shop closed and the school board to send Miss Bailes packing from her beloved school. Learning of Miss Bailes' situation, the President (whose face is never seen) himself returns to town to comfort her and honor her in a speech in front of the awed townsfolk.This little movie is a fine showcase for the always wonderful Miss Robson, here less incendiary than usual although a major butt-in-ski as normal. Her scenes at her last day at school are played as hearttuggers and they are highly effective. Beautiful 30's starlet Mary Carlisle is cast as one of the major problem children, a spoiled little rich girl and the very young Fred MacMurray (quite dashing in a working class way) has an early role as a delivery man unimpressed with Carlisle's methods. It's a particular treat to see Alan Hale in a rare non-period role as the town bad seed who isn't so bad after all but the supporting player who stands out the most is Etienne Girardot, an elderly character actor specializing in diminutive pretentious professor-types here cast as Miss Bailes' no nonsense, devoted vice principal.The movie's ending is unintentionally haunting, Miss Bailes gets praised by the President but what will become of this old lady now that she has been pushed out before her reaching her pension. The new principal has already been hired and is set to start the next school day. The moral of the film almost becomes be of service to your community but don't go too far. Miss Bailes' fate is unclear, whatever will become of this truly grand old girl?

Don't let the poor reviews here and the low score scare you away from this heart-warming tear-jerker. The cast, led by May Robson, does a fine job. I won't give much away, but this is a story about a decent human being (a school principal) who has devoted her life to guiding children, then has a bad break, but is "rescued" at the end by a wonderful surprise. It is a beautiful morality tale, and I enjoyed it despite some unlikely happenings. The story is so decent and ably presented that it is not so hard to "suspend disbelief" at times, and to tolerate a racial stereotype. The filming in such olden times adds a special glow to the movie, and lets us accept the implausibilities in the story, in fact makes us wistful for those times.

May Robson, two years after her Academy Award nominated performance in Lady for a Day, got roped into doing this film about a school principal in small town USA. The premise is actually an interesting one and you can follow the concept from a film like Grand Old Girl right up to a television series like Boston Public. She's a school principal 24 hours a day and takes an interest in all that goes on in her small town.The problem was that the script just had so many saccharine characters in it who in the end don't really turn out to be as bad as they first seem that it gets ridiculous. Alan Hale who runs a malt shop, but who has a back room where gambling and liquor are available to the kids, is one of her foes. In the end however he feels sorry for the old gal and turns out to be her rescuer. This is after she attempted to run him out of business.Mary Carlisle in the next generation would be labeled a high school hellcat. At first she is one spoiled rich kid tramp and then she breaks down and cry when the town fathers led by her father put Robson out to pasture. Among Robson's former pupils is a man who became an unnamed mythical President of the United States who makes a dramatic appearance in his home town. It can't be FDR since the president's face is never shown. Sort of like how Jesus was portrayed in films like The Big Fisherman or Ben-Hur later. Also the president is walking unaided which FDR could not do. But Gavin Gordon who plays the president has an FDR like mellifluous voice.Fred MacMurray here is wasted, none of his gifts of comedy are utilized and that's a shame. He's a delivery man who Carlisle has a yen for.Cecil B. DeMille made a controversial film two years earlier called This Day and Age about high school kids fighting corruption in their small town. Some of the same elements are here in Grand Old Girl, but the scriptwriters I believe were trapped by the persistent mythology of small town America and the good people in it. So the film got watered down to nothingness.Sad to say, but there's nothing of any real interest in Grand Old Girl.

Set in a small town that may as well have sprung from the pages of Archie & Jughead comics, Mrs. Bayles is the venerable principal of the local high school. She's a kindly soul, dedicated above all to the education and welfare of her students. You can tell as she painstakingly tutors a cement-headed member of the football team in geometry. There's one major bee in her bonnet, though; 'Click' Dade, who runs a gambling den out of the back room of his malt shop (yeah, you read that correctly...) Her own sleuthing turns up enough evidence for an indictment, but not a conviction. Outraged at her concern for the students, the school board issues her a stern warning. Still, she can't resist her urge to serve. When a shy, stuttering boy comes to her, Ms. Bayles tells him of another of her students, many years before. He, too, had been shy and teased by others, but he grew up to be *gasp* PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES! Still fighting, the foxy old gal connives to beat Dade at his own game. In a heartwarming scene of good old-fashioned racism, a black student teaches Ms. Bayles how to shoot craps with loaded dice. She wins enough money from Dade to open her own malt shop (with a jazz band, no less), but a fistfight erupts, leading the school board to close her storefront and fire her from the school. She's packing her bags and getting ready to move on, when who should come in to save the day? Yes, Ms. Bayles former pupil, the Chief Executive himself who just happens to be rolling through town in a motorcade. The Prez delivers a lecture on the holy calling that is the life of an educator, and the film ends with the town cheering their Ms. Bayles.Oh, yeah, and there's some stuff about some rich man's party girl daughter who has eyes for a local delivery driver (a young Fred MacMurray), but it's all rather plodding and stagy. Final word on "Grand Old Girl": Not aggressively bad but still not unique enough to be a true curiosity piece. You needn't go out of your way for it.