Song of the South **** (1946, Bobby Driscoll, Ruth Warrick, Lucile Watson, James Basket) – Classic Movie Review 3692

Walt Disney’s 1946 tale of a boy called Johnny (Bobby Driscoll) coming to live on a plantation with his Mother (Ruth Warrick) and Grandmother (Lucile Watson) makes for a lovely children’s movie, though perhaps it just a little bit too sentimental. The zippy song of the south is the Oscar-winning Best Original Song ‘Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah’, with lyrics by Ray Gilbert and music by Allie Wrubel.

Johnny wants to run away when he hears about his parents’ separation but he is brought back by the tales of kindly old story-teller Uncle Remus, who tells Johnny his stories about the trickster Br’er Rabbit, who outwits the foxy Br’er Fox and the slow-witted Br’er Bear. Uncle Remus is played by the charming James Baskett, who won a special Honorary Award Oscar ‘For his able and heart-warming characterization of Uncle Remus, friend and story teller to the children of the world’.

The other highlights are three excellent cartoons with Br’er Rabbit (voice of Johnny Lee), Br’er Fox and Br’er Bear (voice of Nick Stewart), which are directed by Wilfred Jackson. Harve Foster directed the live action. Baskett also voices Br’er Fox.

Shot by cinematographer Gregg Toland, the gorgeous Technicolor images still look wonderful. Dalton Raymond, Morton Grant and Maurice Rapf base the screenplay on the book Tales of Uncle Remus by Joel Chandler Harris. Daniele Amfitheatrof, Paul J Smith and Charles Wolcott were Oscar nominated for Best Scoring of a Musical Picture.

Also in the cast are Luana Patten as Ginny, Hattie McDaniel as Aunt Tempy, Glenn Leedy, Georgie Noakes, Gene Holland, Erik Rolf, Mary Field, Gene Holland and Anita Brown.

Bobby Driscoll received his Hollywood Star on 1560 Vine Street after his role as Jim Hawkins in Walt Disney’s Treasure Island (1950). He won a special Academy Award at age 12 as the outstanding juvenile actor of 1949 for his roles in So Dear to My Heart (1948) and The Window (1949). His last big movie hit was the voice of animated Peter Pan (1953), for which he was also the live-action model. He was the first contract player at Disney, who terminated his second long-term contract (seven years) three years early in 1953, weeks after Peter Pan was released, apparently because of his severe acne. He became the first Disney casualty. On March 30, 1968, two children found his dead body in an abandoned East Village tenement. He was buried in an unmarked pauper’s grave on Hart Island. He was 31.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3692

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