CHICKEN EVERY SUNDAY
US, 1949, 94 minutes, Black and white.
Dan Dailey, Celeste Holm, Colleen Townsend, Alan Young, Natalie Wood.
Directed by George Seaton.
Chicken Every Sunday is a very pleasant piece of Americana. There were many films like this during the '30s, '40s and '50s. It forms the staple of so many television series of later decades. The film has something of the origins of
Tucson and the atmosphere of Arizona at the turn of the century and the early 20th century. There is a very strong performance by Dan Dailey in the role of the gambling husband. Celeste Holm has one of her rare star roles and does very well as the wife and mother. She had recently won the Academy Award for best supporting actress in Gentlemen's Agreement. There is a good supporting cast and Natalie Wood can be glimpsed as one of the children. The screenplay was co-written by the director George Seaton. He had just won an Oscar for The Miracle on 34th Street and was to make quite a number of solid entertainments ranging from drama to comedy and adventure, including his award-winning The Country Girl.
1. The film as a pleasant piece of Americana? The American heritage, the American dream? Its universal appeal?
2. The style of the '40s: black and white photography, the nostalgic songs, the stars, the leisurely pace?
3. The flashback and its information and mood? Creating expectations about the marriage? The opportunity for Emily to speak out and solve the problem? The end with its sentiment?
4. The wedding start, Jim and the money, Emily and the house? Jim and his eye for speculation - a foretelling of what was to come?
5. Dan Dailey's style as Jim: as the gambling type, speculative, always losing money? The range of deals, fast-talking people into putting up money, his own lowing it? Dreams of Easy Street? The plan for the hospital, the appeal for the money and his giving $5000? The range of other interests? The copper mine and his sinking everything into it? Taking his wife's money, the mortgage? Incorrigible? Yet likable? The familiar pattern of so many fathers and husbands? His particularly American style? The final judgment on him and his contribution to Tucson - his standard of values, while eager for money, the human element as being more important?
6. Celeste Holm's attractive presentation of Emily? As a bride, her love for Jim, the house and the boarders? Her strictness with money, wanting security? The joy of burning the mortgage?
7. Jim and Emily at home, the complementarity of their personalities, the range of guests in the house, the birth of Rosemary, the other children? The humour of the sequence when Jim's bed collapsed, Emily explaining her ways of accounting with the animals? Emily teaching Danny to dance? Her suspicions of Mr Robinson? The annual dance? The party for the burning of the mortgage?
8. Rosemary and her growing up, her love for Danny and her impatience with him, Harold and his Boston attentions? Danny and his mother, his learning to dance, negative attitudes towards himself, behaviour at the dance, the eventual fight with Harold and the happy ending for both?
9. The various guests: the older couple, the woman in the bathroom, Danny and his mother and her fussing, Mr. Robinson and his fiancee and the lengths to which they went to disguise their relationship, the news about their wedding after Jim and Emily had worried about Rosemary and Jim's reaction to Harold?
10. Rita as the tough gold-digging type. her policeman friends, her ingratiating herself into the household? Jim’s using the situation, the telegram to Kirby and his arrival? Hustling him for the money? Reconciling Rita and her husband because of the jewels etc.? The arrival of her mother-in-law and her alcoholic performance? Kirby's refusing to give the money?
11. The background of the bank. the drilling for copper, the mortgaging of the furniture, the house? Jim's being exposed and desperate?
12. Jim's realisation of what had happened after Emily's wanting to divorce him? Emily realising that she loved him after her talk to the lawyer? Rosemary's talking about success and failure and true values? The sentiment of the ending - traditional, happy, American stability? A pleasant picture of domestic America?
