My Old Town (1948) watch online HD

My Old Town (1948)

*** (out of 4)

Part of John Nesbitt's Passing Parade, this short has the narrator talking about his love for his hometown even though the exact city is never named. After reading the description to this film I was rather worried even though it only ran 10-minutes but it turns out that the movie is actually a lot more entertaining than it should have been. Nesbitt's narration is right on the mark as he talks about nostalgia and he really captures the mood of an adult looking back over his life. We get to see what he remembers as a young kid, like the July 4th parties and then what he remembers as an adult, like dating, his first cigarette and so on. The film does a very good job at what it tries to do and that is look back at something from our past that sticks with us as adults.

Nostalgic but not exactly stimulating is my brief description of this rather quiet little short subject narrated by John Nesbitt, a tribute to his old hometown.

Images of spring, firecrackers on the 4th of July, farmers ploughing the land, a boy fishing and swimming with pals, school days, high school graduation exercises, and young men pursuing more adult pleasures such as the poolroom, dances, summer concerts, etc.

The narration concludes with the statement that "No path leads to yesterday," and the glimpse of small town life is over as the scene shifts to the present day 1948.

Anyone who has grown up on MGM films can spot scenes from "Our Vines Have Tender Grapes" used as stock footage with "Butch" Jenkins as the boy doing the fishing and seen in a couple of other farm images.

My Old Town is a "shortie" they show in-between films on turner classics. A quick little bit on how great it was back in the early 1900s if you were upper middle class and white. The houses are all HUGE, with giant lawns. I'm sure even in those days, there were plenty of poor folk, living in shacks or on farms, scraping to get by. And things sure weren't too good for the African Americans, or any minority. The opening theme is how fun it is to remember the quaint, quiet little towns where we grew up.... and at the last minute, they state that we wouldn't want to go back to those days. The giant plot-hole in this bit is that the narrator doesn't say WHY we wouldn't want to go back to those "good ol days", he just postulates that we wouldn't want to. It's okay, but nothing earthshaking in this one. Probably shown before or after the main event at the Saturday movie house. Written, directed, and produced by John Nesbitt, king of the short films. Died at 49, unknown causes.

Consider that the short was made in 1948, just as the Cold War was heating up and the Soviets were getting their own nuclear bomb. I expect author and narrator Nesbitt's text reflects much popular anxiety of the time. Sure, the old pre-Depression days were great for middle-class folks, all the common experiences of growing up in middle America. The short does a good job idealizing these, so that we too feel the nostalgia. But now, it's 1948 and an unpredictable new age is dawning. Here Nesbitt reminds us that the past is past and, like it or not, we face an unknown future. But we must have faith in what's to come, which he underscores with religious symbolism. The net effect is to go forth bravely regardless the call of the past. Placed in its time period, this is an understandable popular appeal he's making, and material for Cold War historians. Thus, the short is best understood as a product of that period, even as it touches on a widely shared sentiment.