The Movie:

Formulaic kiddie stuff bolstered by a sensitive, young Roddy McDowall, 1942's On the Sunny Side follows the shenanigans of a cultured British boy (McDowall) sent to an idyllic Ohio town to avoid the London Blitz during World War II. 20th Century Fox made this brief yet fun b-movie as a showcase for its poised 13 year-old star, who had made an impression at the studio in John Ford's classic How Green Was My Valley. The movie is one of Fox's lesser-known catalog titles now released as part of their Cinema Archives made-to-order DVD program.

As a vehicle for McDowall's precocious yet never cloying screen presence, On the Sunny Side works. This, despite a wholesome, episodic story that seems like several strung-together episodes from Our Gang (the sanitized MGM years, not the cool earlier ones). McDowall's character, Hugh Aylesworth, is one of the thousands of British children shipped to the safer shores of the U.S. during the Nazi bombing raids ravaging their country in WWII. Despite Hugh's haughty accent and "jolly good" English mannerisms, the chap gets a warm welcome from the Andrews family - father George (Don Douglas), mother Mary (Katherine Alexander), housekeeper Annie (Jane Darwell), and Donnie (Freddie Mercer), the son who is the same age as Hugh. The boy's delightful personality even wins over the Andrews' cute Scottie dog Angus, who picks Hugh's mattress over Donnie's at bedtime. Hugh's easygoing intelligence and curiosity about American ways also endear him to Donnie's scrappy friends, including Betty (Ann Todd in the Darla role), the plucky girl classmate formerly stuck on Donnie. It's a sugary sweet, diabetes-inducing living arrangement all right - what could possibly befoul them?

Although Hugh encounters some nasty schoolyard bullies and the jealousy of his roommate Donnie, On the Sunny Side pretty much plays it benignly as wholesome support for our allies in Europe (coming out mere months after Pearl Harbor, it's still a little too early to be considered full-fledged propaganda). If it seems kind of whitewashed and Andy Hardy-ish, the movie remains pretty interesting today for revealing little details about daily life in the 1940s - for instance, a scene with a classroom's pledge of allegiance shows the kids doing a Hitler-style arm salute. Director Harold Schuster gets a good, sensitive performance out of McDowall (the two would re-team on 1943's My Friend Flicka), while the other child-age actors manage to stay appealing without going overboard into cuteness. There's also a swell canine performance from the black Scottie dog who plays Angus.

On the Sunny Side is a fanciful version of an actual program from the late '30s involving the evacuation of British children during World War II, dubbed Operation Pied Piper. The movie tends to shy away from the realities of war, but it's lightly addressed in scenes like the one where Hugh has a nightmare believing that the sounds outside the Andrews' home are air raid sirens and Nazi aircraft. The war's hardships are also dramatized in an absorbing scene with Hugh taking part in a transatlantic radio broadcast. Vignettes with Hugh and other evacuees speaking with their parents in England are tenderly done (the only time this movie operated on an A-picture level, really), although its impact is dulled with treacly, manipulative music. As with Fox's other Cinema Archives DVDs, this is a brief (69 minutes) movie with little to nothing in terms of supplementary info, although people already interested in Roddy McDowall or homespun '40s cinema will likely enjoy this one.

The DVD:

Video:

Fox's Cinema Archives made-to-order release of On the Sunny Side showcases the film in an unrestored yet decent-looking print. The 4:3 image seems a little too sharpened with some high-contrast parts of the image having a slight halo effect, although mostly it looked good with nice film grain and light-dark balance with just a few remnants of dust and white specks.

Audio:

The mono soundtrack is a decent affair with a modicum of pops, hiss and other artifacts. Despite the limited dynamics from an aged print, the sound was decent. No subtitles are provided.

Extras:

None.

Final Thoughts:

Brits and Americans: Best Friends Forever! 20th Century Fox's sugary On the Sunny Side made for a pleasant morale-boosting vehicle for veteran kid actor Roddy McDowall. With Master Roddy doing a ripping job as a boy sent to live with an average American family while World War II rages in England, this breezy comedy overdoses on cuteness while revealing some fascinating stuff on early '40s daily life. Recommended.

Matt Hinrichs is a designer, artist, film critic and jack-of-all-trades in Phoenix, Arizona. Since 2000, he has been blogging at Scrubbles.net. 4 Color Cowboy is his repository of Western-kitsch imagery, while other films he's experienced are logged at Letterboxd. He also welcomes friends on Twitter @4colorcowboy.