All Mine to Give (1957)

In many ways, this is not a feel-good Hollywood movie. Perhaps this is a film that pastors, rabbis, ministers, priests and other family planning counselors should show young couples before they have children. It's a sobering thought to realize that an unexpected tragedy like the one depicted here could happen. Assuming that relatives will take your kids or that they can be sent back to live with family members in another state or country might not be what happens. The one thing I think the mother could have done in this story was to have the doctor bring other townsfolk to the house to tell them her wish about the kids finding new homes. Again, it's not a cheerful subject, and it makes you wonder what really did happen to these kids (we know one of them grew up to write a story about the experience). Maybe there should have been a sequel, or at least, an epilogue.

The kids are the best actors, here. The kids are easy to relate to. You are bound to see shades of your own childhood in one or all of them. This movie is heartwarming, heart-wrenching, thoughtful and hard not to like. It begs a person to search their heart. You will find yourself asking how strong mentally, morally and emotionally mature you could have been at the tender age of 12 or younger. It will also make you appreciate how far we have come with our strides in Medicine. It should also give you a profound respect for those that went before that endured tougher times than we have or ever will see.Think, "The Yearling" meets "The Little House on the Prairie".

When my family watched this we had gotten very attached to the characters and wanted to know the whole story (today's films would have followed the tale with "So-and-so went on to do such-and-such"). Knowing that the tale is TRUE made it more powerful but unfulfilled at the end without following up. The local Wisconsin online historical societies had the best coverage of the Eunson's. The writer (who lived to be 98) is one of the grandchildren of the parents in the story.... Clark County Press usgennet.org is where I found what we wanted to know when the film 'ended'. Could be a good propaganda piece for vaccinations!

I took a quick look at the career of director Allen Reisner who worked at Studio One before taking on this feature film. Reisner went back to working mostly for television after All Mine To Give. But never in his career did he come close to doing anything as good as this film. Very few have.All Mine To Give has become a Christmas classic in its own right as well received as It's A Wonderful Life. The story though is one of the most depressing you'll ever see and yet it's about an unconquerable spirit present even in our children.The film is the story of the Eunson family, Scottish immigrants who settle in frontier Wisconsin in the 1850s. The parents are Cameron Mitchell and Glynis Johns who then raise five children, the oldest being Rex Thompson.All Mine To Give while showing the Eunsons and most of the rest of their neighbors as decent folks is a no frills, uncompromising look at frontier life in those days. So many diseases we've conquered now were present back then. When both Mitchell and Johns fall to them the orphaned Eunson kids are left in a terrible fix. It's up to Thompson to decide their fates.And this is all happening at Christmas time which has made All Mine To Give a staple on TCM in December. The story is based on a true incident at the time this story is taking place. It also is strikingly similar to what happened to Herbert Hoover and his two siblings when they were orphaned.Such fine character players as Sylvia Field, Reta Shaw, Royal Dano, Alan Hale, Jr. play some of the townspeople. All Mine To Give will pull on so many emotions at once you'll be drained with a single viewing. Filmed during the last years of RKO Studios, All Mine To Give is a flawless holiday classic with a great story and a wonderful cast to tell it.