Summer Magic is one of the few films I can think of where the remake actually improved on the original. Maybe it's the cast here, maybe it's the musical score by Disney house composers the Sherman Brothers.
Whatever it is, Summer Magic is nice recreation of times at the turn of the last century when widow Carey, played by Dorothy McGuire moves in to this old house with her three children, Hayley Mills, Eddie Hodges, and Jimmy Mathers. They've had to get used to genteel poverty since Mrs. Carey's husband was killed in the Spanish American War.
This remake of Mother Carey's Chickens is so laid back in style and spirit it makes The Music Man which covers the same era look like its on steroids. The score by the Brothers Sherman doesn't contain anything as memorable as what comes out of Mary Poppins, but those two guys suffered their entire careers from the rest of their work being compared to Mary Poppins.
This was Hayley Mills's height as a Disney star and she certainly was lovely and winsome as the oldest of the Carey brood who gets a little romance from not one, but two sources in that first summer in Maine.
Presiding over the whole film avuncularly is Burl Ives, playing a role Walter Brennan originated in Mother Carey's Chickens. Ives and Una Merkel and their son Michael J. Pollard make a trio of wise down home rustics. Well with Pollard you can skip the wise part.
Summer Magic is one of the Magic Kingdom's best films and who knows, maybe it will get yet another remake. I can see Ashley Tisdale being the Hayley Mills of the 21st century.
Whatever it is, Summer Magic is nice recreation of times at the turn of the last century when widow Carey, played by Dorothy McGuire moves in to this old house with her three children, Hayley Mills, Eddie Hodges, and Jimmy Mathers. They've had to get used to genteel poverty since Mrs. Carey's husband was killed in the Spanish American War.
This remake of Mother Carey's Chickens is so laid back in style and spirit it makes The Music Man which covers the same era look like its on steroids. The score by the Brothers Sherman doesn't contain anything as memorable as what comes out of Mary Poppins, but those two guys suffered their entire careers from the rest of their work being compared to Mary Poppins.
This was Hayley Mills's height as a Disney star and she certainly was lovely and winsome as the oldest of the Carey brood who gets a little romance from not one, but two sources in that first summer in Maine.
Presiding over the whole film avuncularly is Burl Ives, playing a role Walter Brennan originated in Mother Carey's Chickens. Ives and Una Merkel and their son Michael J. Pollard make a trio of wise down home rustics. Well with Pollard you can skip the wise part.
Summer Magic is one of the Magic Kingdom's best films and who knows, maybe it will get yet another remake. I can see Ashley Tisdale being the Hayley Mills of the 21st century.