When their father dies, Julie Gholson has to work hard and tell a lot of lies to keep her family together and out of the foundlings' home.
There's about forty-five minutes of story in this movie, because how many times can you say "Pa is feeling poorly and sleeping" before you've lost the audience's interest? As a running gag in a series, it would best be used once an episode. This movie, which times in at 98 minutes, probably should have used it three times, with the third time a failure -- that's a bit of story-telling construction for you, albeit one directed at comedy. However, it seems to have been used at least half a dozen times.
So what does this movie spend the rest of its time showing you? Well, the life of a back woods adolescent, the story of a courtship by the well cast Harry Dean Stanton, and the natural beauty of the half-tamed country around Watauga County in North Carolina. There's a lot worth seeing in this movie, but it could have used another pass by the editor.
There's about forty-five minutes of story in this movie, because how many times can you say "Pa is feeling poorly and sleeping" before you've lost the audience's interest? As a running gag in a series, it would best be used once an episode. This movie, which times in at 98 minutes, probably should have used it three times, with the third time a failure -- that's a bit of story-telling construction for you, albeit one directed at comedy. However, it seems to have been used at least half a dozen times.
So what does this movie spend the rest of its time showing you? Well, the life of a back woods adolescent, the story of a courtship by the well cast Harry Dean Stanton, and the natural beauty of the half-tamed country around Watauga County in North Carolina. There's a lot worth seeing in this movie, but it could have used another pass by the editor.