Room for One More (1952)

Room for One More
Directed by Norman Taurog
Written by Jack Rose and Melville Shavelson from the book by Anna Perrot Rose
1952/USA
Warner Bros.
First viewing/Amazon Instant

[box] George ‘Poppy’ Rose: [to the dog after the kids give an anonymous vote] It was anonymous eh? Who did you vote for?[/box]

If an utterly predictable heartwarming comedy can be genuinely funny, this is the movie that will prove it.

George Rose (Cary Grant) works as an engineer.  His wife Anna (Betsy Drake) keeps house and looks after their three young children.  One day, Anna goes with her PTA group to visit an orphanage.  The director explains to the ladies how hard it is to place their older charges with families.  They are not signing up in droves to take one home with them.  The director asks Anna to stay behind.  There is a young adolescent girl with emotional problems that she thinks Anna could do wonders with.  Anna promises to bring the matter up with George.  He is unenthusiastic to say the least.  But the director simply shows up with the girl, Jane, and the couple agree to take her for two weeks.  She has a gigantic chip on her shoulder and a sharp tongue to boot.

It is not going to be a surprise to anyone that Anna ends up breaking through to the girl and she becomes one of the family.  After some time, the family agrees to take a disabled boy with them on their beach vacation.  He is even more of a pain than Jane was.  I could go on but it is unecessary.

I went into this one with some apprehension and wound up liking it a lot.  Cary Grant makes this movie.  He is playing against type as a family man and I was totally believing it within about five minutes.  He also has great chemistry with Betsy Drake.  I don’t thing I have seen Drake in anything before, a pity since I found her quite appealing.   There are some pretty funny bits here and the kids aren’t too annoying. If you are looking for something light and wholesome, this would fill the bill admirably.

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