Home Sweet Homicide (1946)

Wise cracking kids,widow,crime novels and a real murder next door,Ingredients to shake than write,then film.As a kid I first saw this 1946 release that runs 96 minutes.The cast is good,story great but the peek into life back in the post war years in priceless.Yes it is not that way today,but nostalgia is one reason to be entertained by a film,STRONG family values is another.Oh yes,Dean Stockwell as a 5 or 6 year old,crazy !!!!Randolph Scott is also believable as a cop rather than his usual cowboy roles.I love this film and TRUE film buffs/historians MUST see.Kids lighting a moms cigarette YES,true,I did that before I knew better,and also had 2 older sisters,though not as happy memories.If you liked the stooges and bowery boys,than see this family style of the same wise cracking.

A mystery writer's three kids help solve a neighborhood murder and help find their widowed mom a boyfriend.The kids are the whole show, and what a talented pre-teen cast they are. Garner & co. even make their sometimes adult dialog sound engaging instead of obnoxious. At times, the chemistry between the kids is little short of amazing, a credit, I expect, to director Bacon. Forget the whodunit thread, which is really just an excuse to stir the youthful pot. But I'm still a bit puzzled by the macho Randolph Scott appearing in a slice of juvenile hi-jinks like this. I guess I'm too used to seeing him with a six-gun and a cowboy hat.That same year the talented Garner would star in the charming coming-of-age comedy Junior Miss (1946), also worth catching up with. Stockwell, of course, is still with us, having managed that difficult transition to adult roles, some of which are a long way from his mischievously wholesome Archie. However, it looks like the equally talented Connie Marshall fell afoul of the transition barrier, having unfortunately died in relative obscurity.Nonetheless, this charming little comedy remains a sleeper among kid movies, and a permanent testimonial to an engagingly youthful cast.

Oh, yeah, that Million Dollar Movie...my brothers and I adored watching the same movie all week long. Damn Yankees, No Time for Sergeants, <sigh>. You got so you could recite the dialogue along with the actors. That must have been where we saw this movie too, because I remember it clearly, though I haven't seen it for decades. I loved it, and of course saw it from the kids' viewpoint. (Dean Stockwell, Al of Quantum Leap fame, is one of my favorite actors - wonderful in The Boy with the Green Hair and so versatile.) The remarks about Peggy Ann Garner by another enthusiast are interesting and I loved Junior Miss as well (movie & book). Yep, this is one that should be on DVD, definitely. EVERYTHING ON MILLION-DOLLAR MOVIE should be on DVD...

The children were magnificent in this movie. They acted like most siblings do, but are there for each other when needed. Good suspense.