Judy Holliday's dud

I've argued before that pretty much any star who was around long enough will have made enough movies to have at least one serious dud in their filmography. Recently, I watched a film that I think would qualify as a dud for Judy Holliday: Full of Life.

Holliday plays Emily Rocco, married to writer Nick (Richard Conte) and pregnant with the couple's first child. Of course, the couple is married; the Production Code would never allow for them to be unmarried. But the marriage was only a civil ceremoney, which is going to be a serious plot point later in the movie. For now, suffice it to say that Emily wasn't born Catholic and isn't particularly into any religious tradition.

Being a writer isn't hugely remunerative, but Nick was able to save enough money to buy a house for the couple. It's just that it's an older house, which means that it's reaching the point where repairs are needed. That becomes much more obvious one day when Emily falls through the kitchen floor! She and Nick bring in a couple of construction guys for estimates, but all of them tell the couple that it's going to cost more money than the couple can really afford.

However, Nick's father Vittorio (Salvatore Baccaloni, who I presume was being groomed for being an older character actor by Columbia), was a stonemason who has since retired to northern California to do a bit of farming together with Mama Rocco (Esther Minciotti). In theory, Dad could do the work for just the cost of materials as well as putting Dad up in the house for a while, but there's a serious catch. Nick and Vittorio have serious differences of opinion on a whole bunch of subjects, including Nick's only having gotten a civil wedding. But it's not as if the young couple has much choice, so they invite him down to southern California to do the work.

As you might guess, Vittorio proceeds to turn the place upside-down. Some of those ways are the tropes that seem like good ways, with a bohemian outlook on life that serves to make people around him a little less strait-laced. But there are other things, like completely coming up with a different plan for the home renovation than what Nick and Emily want, or can even afford in terms of materials. And then there's Vittorio trying to get Emily to consider converting to Catholicism....

Full of Life is one of those movies that on the surface sounds like it has a really good premise, but under the surface it rather fails thanks to a bad handling of the premise. In this case, it's part that I found the tone to be really uneven. The movie isn't certain whether it wants to be a broad comedy or a serious drama. Part of the comedy is supposed to come from Vittorio being the stereotypical Italian-American immigrant, but it comes across as a lot closer to insulting than charming. The whole religious conversion aspect feels heavy-handed. And then there's a subplot about Mama getting up there in years to the point that everybody worries about her health. And then everybody just leaves her alone up at that farm while Dad goes south, effectively writing her out of the movie.

Full of Life is a giant mess that doesn't serve anybody well, least of all the usually quite good Judy Holliday.