Driftwood **** (1947, Natalie Wood, Ruth Warrick, Walter Brennan, Dean Jagger, Charlotte Greenwood, Jerome Cowan, H B Warner, Margaret Hamilton) – Classic Movie Review 12,101

The nine-year-old Natalie Wood gives a super show of winning acting in this thoroughly enjoyable homespun drama. 

Producer-director Allan Dwan’s prestige 1947 drama Driftwood stars Ruth Warrick, Walter Brennan, Dean Jagger, Charlotte Greenwood, and Natalie Wood, along with Jerome Cowan, H B Warner, Margaret Hamilton and Hobart Cavanaugh.

Jagger plays a caring GP doctor called Dr Steve Webster, who adopts a young orphan called Jenny Hollingsworth (Wood), who has never before had a taste of genteel life, in a US Western town afflicted by a fever epidemic. Little orphan Jenny adopts a collie.

The nine-year-old Wood gives a super show of winning acting in this entirely enjoyable homespun drama, and there is polished backup from the clutch of talented adults, several of them big scene-stealers.

Driftwood is a small film, and easy to overlook, but the writing and photography are immaculate, and, above all, there is spick and span direction from Dwan, who made scores of movies in a five-decade career (a total of 125 motion pictures) until his retirement in 1961, with the motto ‘if you stay down, you last forever’. He died in Los Angeles in 1981 at the age of 96.

Also in the cast are Francis Ford, Alan Napier, Howland Chamberlain, James Bell, Teddy Infuhr, James Kirkwood, Ray Teal, Zeke Holland, Ellen Corby, Dick Elliott, Betty Farrington, Mary Field, Billy Gray, Eilene Janssen, Nolan Leary, Tom London, and Carl ‘Alfalfa’ Switzer.

It is produced by Republic Pictures.

A new restoration of Driftwood by Paramount Pictures, The Film Foundation and Martin Scorsese was screened at the Museum of Modern Art on 2 February 2018, as part of its programme of showcasing 30 restored films from the library of Republic Pictures curated by Scorsese.

Driftwood is directed by Allan Dwan, runs 88 minutes, is made and released by Republic Pictures, is written by Mary Loos and Richard Sale, is shot by John Alton, is produced by Allan Dwan, is scored by Nathan Scott and Cy Feuer, and is designed by Frank Arrigo.

It was released on 15 September 1947.

The cast are Ruth Warrick as Susan Moore, Walter Brennan as Murph, Dean Jagger as Dr Steve Webster, Charlotte Greenwood as Mathilda, Natalie Wood as Jenny Hollingsworth, Jerome Cowan as Mayor Snyder, H. B. Warner as the Rev J Hollingsworth / Grandpappy, Margaret Hamilton as Essie Keenan, Hobart Cavanaugh as Judge Beckett, Francis Ford as Abner Green, Alan Napier as Dr Nicholas Adams, Howland Chamberlain as Hiram Trumbell, James Bell as Sheriff Bolton, Teddy Infuhr as Lester Snyder, James Kirkwood as the Rev MacDougal, Ray Teal as Clem Perkins, Zeke Holland as Blaine Perkins Ellen Corby, Dick Elliott, Betty Farrington, Mary Field, Billy Gray, Eilene Janssen, Nolan Leary, Tom London, and Carl ‘Alfalfa’ Switzer.

© Derek Winnert 2022 Classic Movie Review 12,101

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Natalie Wood.