"That Hagen Girl" (1947) has gained quite a reputation over the years. A sort of rediscovery of it happened in 1978 when it was named in Harry Medved and Randy Dreyfuss' book "The Fifty Worst Films of All Time". The film is nowhere near as bad as all that. And up to that point I will defend it. But, would I recommend it? No. Perhaps as a curiosity piece but not for sheer entertainment value.
Actually "That Hagen Girl" could have been a great film. The movie runs one hour and 40 minutes. I enjoyed about an hour and 30 minutes of it. And up until that point would have gladly given the film 4 stars. But, oh that ending!
But, lets not jump ahead of ourselves. First let me explain the plot. Shirley Temple stars as Mary Hagen. A young girl born to Manta (Dorothy Peterson) and Jim Hagen (Charles Kemper). Or was she? See, there was a rumor that Mary is the illegitimate child of Tom Bates (Ronald Reagan) and the daughter of a wealthy family girl. Because of this, in the small Ohio town where Mary lives she is the constant subject of mean spirited gossip. Knowing what to expect throughout his life, as another subject of scandal, as he prepares to be lawyer, Tom leaves the small town. But poor Mary can't.
Mary has pretty much been kept in the dark about the whole incident. Though she does wonder sometimes why adults always pick on her and say she is a bad influence. Why is she punished for the same behavior others engage in?
Tom Bates returns to the small town after an old friend leaves him his office. And soon the old rumors start. Has Tom came to claim his daughter? Tom is not exactly sure who Mary Hagen is even! But that doesn't stop people from talking.
Mary has by seen going out with a boy from a wealthy family, Ken (Rory Calhoun). But his parents object to their son seeing Mary. Mostly because of her background and the fact she doesn't come from a wealthy family herself.
The only other important person in Mary's life is one of her high school teachers, Julia Kane (Louis Maxwell). Not being one of the locals, she too wonders why others treat Mary so harshly. When she does hear of the rumor, she confronts Tom about it. But he refuses to answer her or anyone else. When word finally reaches Mary about who Tom may be, she starts to wonder herself.
"That Hagen Girl", despite having a lousy title, does a lot of things right. As I already said I enjoyed a great deal of the movie. I thought Reagan and small towns equals great movies. Reagan starred in an earlier film about a small town with a lot of secrets "Kings Row" (1942), often considered his finest film. And "Kings Row" is a great movie, perhaps I'll include it in my "Masterpiece Film Series" one day, and "That Hagen Girl" seemed to be going down the same path. Maybe a bit cliched in its view of small town life, it was still able to get me involved and wonder in excitement if in fact Tom was Mary's father.
And then comes the ending! I never would have thought an ending could have ruin a movie as much as the ending for "That Hagen Girl" does. What exactly was screenwriter Charles Hoffman, who wrote the Cole Porter bio-pic "Night & Day" with Cary Grant and "Two Guys from Milwaukee", Warner Brothers rip-off of the "Road" pictures with Jack Carson and Dennis Morgan, thinking when he adapted this? The film throws way too many, three actually, plot revelations at us out of the blue for no other reason than to try and tie everything up nicely with a little bow on top. These revelations have never, not even once, been hinted at earlier in the film. They were merely poorly executed plot devices attempted for closure. And one of them is downright creepy! In fact Reagan begged the director, Peter Godfrey to change it, claiming audiences wouldn't accept it. For once I agree with Reagan!
Shame on Godfrey. He should have known better. This wasn't his first film. He directed "Cry Wolf" and the holiday classic "Christmas in Connecticut". Godfrey should have been able to understand the impression such plot twists would leave on the audience. If I find it, and I'm not alone in this thought, creepy today, in 2009, imagine what audiences thought of the film's ending in 1947 when society was a bit more conservative and decent.
While I can't reveal the plot twists which occur in the last ten minutes of the film, all I can say is, there is great material here. I never read the novel this was based on, written by Edith Roberts, but if this had been given a re-write. If they would have hinted at some of the revelations earlier in the film and completely scrapped the last sequence with something more shall I say innocent(?) this would have been a great film dealing with the malicious power of gossip. How our own words can harm others especially the innocent lives of children. Other films have done this quite brilliantly, think of "Peyton's Place", do not confuse this with the TV show with Mia Farrow. And because "That Hagen Girl" had such potential, and entertained me for a duration of the film, that is what makes the ending so disappointing.
I liked to say a few words about the actors involved. When we think of Ronald Reagan, naturally we think of his eight years as president. But, this isn't a political blog, I only discuss movies on here, if you want politics, read my political blog, but when we discuss Reagan as an actor he did appear in some bad movies. Though I wouldn't go as far as to say he was a bad actor. An actor is usually only as good as the material they are given to work with. Reagan, like most actors, got his start in "B" movies. These were lower budget films which would play before the main attraction back in the days of "double features". But Reagan did have a likable quality to him on-screen. I think the problem was there was too much competition back then. How could Reagan compete with Humphrey Bogart, Clark Gable or Gary Cooper? Reagan had a charisma to him you can't deny that, but I think he just wasn't put in films worthy of his certain qualities. When he was in an "A" picture I think he did well. Watch "Kings Row". His "Knute Rockne All American" was also popular, but not a classic of the era. That was the movie where his character was nicknamed "the gipper". In "That Hagen Girl", I think he does what the film requires of him. However, he is not the star of this film. It is Shirley Temple who carries the picture, at least in my opinion.
And what a role for little Shirley Temple. By 1947 Temple had grown up. Of course audiences, and I assume even the audiences of 1947, couldn't help but think of her as that sweet, curly top kid. Today's audiences may not realize this, but Shirley Temple was a big star. She was considered more valuable to a studio then Clark Gable. When she was making those pictures as a child actress in "The Little Princess" or "Heidi" she was a box-office champion. She was originally suppose to play Dorothy in "The Wizard of Oz" but the studio wouldn't loan her out.
Given her persona at the time how strange she would accept this role. The only thing I can think of to explain why she played it is that it went against her type so much she perhaps viewed it as something of a break out role. Something to branch out her public perception. The only film I saw her in where she was a bit older that I really enjoyed was "Since You Went Away", a WW2 masterpiece. But in 1947 Temple would have acted in two far-fetched films. Besides this picture she was in "The Bachelor & the Bobby-Soxer" with Cary Grant and Myrna Loy.
Here I think Temple does an adequate job. I feel neither her nor Reagan are given the opportunity to go through much of an acting range here. There doesn't seem to be many emotional highs and lows.
However the film did win one award for its acting. Louis Maxwell won a "Golden Globe" as "Best Newcomer". She is quite good in this. Her part isn't as big as Reagan's or Temple's but she does seem surprisingly more at ease than either one of them.
Another thing about the film I'd like to point out is the cinematography was done by Karl Freund, a legendary cinematographer. He shot such films as Fritz Lang's "Metropolis" and "Dracula" as well as "Key Largo" with Humphrey Bogart and Edward G. Robinson. And later became a director himself. He directed the original "The Mummy".
I mentioned the book "The Fifty Worst Films of All Time" and in case you were wondering some of the other titles included in it were Antonioni's "Zabriskie's Point", Alfred Hitchcock's "Jamaica Inn", Alain Resnais' "Last Year at Marienbad", "The Omen", the Laurel & Hardy comedy "The Big Noise", which actually is a very bad film, and the George Gershwin musical "The Goldwyn Follies" which is where the song "Our Love is Here To Stay" came from. Personally I feel none of these films deserve to be considered "worst of all time". Some I would consider classics actually. So don't take too much stock in the book.
Posts
