Le débrouillard

Faintly ridiculous piece of nostalgic film-flam concerning newlywed couple in early 1900s Tucson; he's the vice-president of the bank and she's the jovial sort of housewife who prides herself on knowing her husband better than he knows himself. Due to the husband's investments and charity, the twosome are forced to take in boarders immediately following their wedding and, as the years progress, their household turns into the neighborhood room-and-board, complete with children of their own. Nothing more than a contract picture for Fox, cheaply-made and cheaply-felt. Valentine Davies and director George Seaton based their script on both Rosemary Taylor's book and the later play by Julius J. and Philip Epstein, which some critics have since compared to the 1970s television series "The Waltons". But even "The Waltons" had a bit of vinegar underneath its homespun scenario; here, beaming wife Celeste Holm plays mommy to her ne'er-do-well hubby, her children, her boarders...she even plays matchmaker for her high-strung daughter and the bashful kid upstairs who can't dance. Natalie Wood appears briefly as one of the tykes, and William Frawley adds some zip as a potential investor in a copper mine, but otherwise this rosy-hued hokum fails to stay the course. *1/2 from ****