The Sun Comes Up (1949)

I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

Wonderful Movie

Pretty Good

One of my all time favorites.

THE SUN COMES UP (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1948), directed by Richard Thorpe, is a sentimental drama notable for being both movie featuring the famous collie by the name of Lassie, introduced five years earlier in LASSIE COME HOME (MGM, 1943), and the final movie appearance of opera singer/actress, Jeanette MacDonald. MacDonald has come a long way in movies by this point, making her film debut in THE LOVE PARADE (Paramount, 1929), starring Maurice Chevalier, with whom she teamed in three more musical-comedies. Aside from non-musical works for other studios such as Fox, she found both home and success at MGM starting in 1934, where the studio developed her talents more towards opera, with a new screen partner being Nelson Eddy. By the 1940s, her style of movies began to wane, marking the close for MGM by 1942. In 1948, she returned to the screen, and MGM, this time playing singing-mother roles starting with THREE DARING DAUGHTERS. Whether MacDonald intended on ending her movie career or not with THE SUN COMES UP is uncertain. At least she managed to hold her own against her scene stealing co-stars, especially from the dog named Lassie. Plot summary: Helen Lorfield Winter (Jeanette MacDonald) is a widowed mother with a teenage son, Hank (Dwayne Hickman) with a collie, Lassie, who adores him. Since the death of her husband, Helen has devoted her time towards her family and home life. A former opera singer by profession, and through the assistance of her manager, Arthur Norton (Lewis Stone), Helen gets her new beginning returning to concert singing for the first time in three years. Her concert proves successful, but her happiness is shattered by the sudden death of her son after getting struck by a passing truck while trying to prevent Lassie from getting hit while on the street. Weeks pass. Helen gives up her career. Unable to be around people, especially children, Helen packs up her belongings to go someplace far away to forget. Though she blames Lassie for her son's death, she takes Lassie with her anyway on a car trip leading her to Bushy Gap, a hillbilly residence located somewhere in the mountains. Helen's new beginning restarts as she rents a furnished home belonging to the out-of-town, Thomas I. Chandler. She soon finds herself disliked by town folks through her attitude towards their children. Through the kindly but blunt assistance of storekeeper, William B. Willigoode (Percy Kilbride), who tells her the truth about herself, Helen's attitude soon changes, especially after meeting with a teenage boy named Jerry (Claude Jarman Jr.). After saving Lassie from a rattlesnake, Helen hires Jerry as her handyboy. Though fond of Jerry, she knows very little about him. It takes her landlord, Thomas Chandler (Lloyd Nolan), having returned from his trip, to let her figure things out for herself. Others in the cast include: Hope Landin (Mrs. Pope); Nicholas Joy (Victor Alvord); Mickey McGuire (Cleaver) and Teddy Infuhr (Junebug). Not the typical MacDonald movie from the past, THE SUN COMES UP, actually resembles that of an episode from a "Lassie" television series a decade later. Though second billed, Lloyd Nolan comes in 63 minutes into the start of the movie, while Claude Jarman Jr., best known for his performance in THE YEARLING (MGM, 1946), takes up much of the proceedings playing a likable harmonica teenager who bonds well with Lassie. Being more drama than musical, the presence of comical types as Percy Kilbride, Margaret Hamilton and Ida Moore, highlight greatly to its lighter moment. Even MacDonald does a brief comedy turn for one scene involving snuff. Because of MacDonald's reputation as a singer, song numbers are inserted into the story, including: "Un Bel De Vedremo" from Giacomo Puccini's MADAME BUTTERFLY; "Songs My Mother Taught Me" by Antonin Dvorak; Rene Rabey's "Tes Jolies Yeux" "Cousin Ebenezer" (with MacDonald and group of orphan boys); and "If You Were Mine" by Artur Rubenstein. THE SUN COMES UP may not be a MacDonald favorite for anyone in favor of her singing opposite Nelson Eddy in eight musicals from 1935 to 1942, or working opposite Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy in SAN FRANCISCO (MGM, 1936), but it is satisfactory screen entertainment of MGM's 93 minutes of Technicolor family style mode. Formerly available on video cassette and later on DVD, THE SUN COMES UP, can often be found on the Turner Classic Movies cable channel. (**1/2)

Except for the fact that I feel that MacDonald quit films because being paired with a dog was pretty much the last straw, I think that.so far, everything that's needed to be said has been said--although I'm sure that someone else will come up with something new observation.Viewers and fans always do with each viewing of the film. You get more and more perspectives as time goes by.But for me, I couldn't help but notice two things that strangely make a future connection to a future TV show which would become as much as a legend as Lassie.One is Barbara Billingsly (Beaver's mom) playing a nurse.The other is a kid named Mickey McGuire (Didn't Mickey Rooney use that name for a while when he was acting in the silents? Got it after playing the lead character in a series of "Toonerville Trolley" films based on the Fontaine Fox comic strip). He plays a boy named Cleaver! Somewhat odd and prophetic that the name and the actress should be in the same movie, don't you think?

I am often fond of the Turner Classic Movies even when they contain out-dated mores and occasional slights to my feminist sensibilities. This is typically because the story lines, the character development, or the acting is strong enough to compensate for a bit of backward thinking here and there. But this film manages to smash its thick, worthless message at you, over and over in every line, scene, and plot point. "Women should be at home caring for a child or they have no meaning in this world, and while you're at it, be sure to be a good home-grown, rural, backward idiot." I couldn't be bothered to stay for the last 15 minutes of this entirely predictable - from minute one - loathsome, uninspired, piece of garbage from a hopefully dead value system.

This is a movie that may be a bit corny by modern measure but a wonderful film to sit down with a young child and watch. Old time values--a slice of life with real problems---a happy ending.