In 2003, the new television show that most excited me was Joan of Arcadia,
a drama about a teenager who has regular conversations with God, who
appears to her in a variety of human guises. In a way, it served as a
replacement for Touched By an Angel, the warm and fuzzy
procedural about angels who receive assignments to improve the lives of a
variety of people. I found myself thinking about both shows thanks to The Angel Doll,
a Christmas movie set in the 1950s that focuses on one boy’s desire to
buy a very special present for his sick sister and his friend’s efforts
to help make that happen.
The Touched By an Angel
similarities are easy to spot, since the main object is an angel and
little Sandy Black (Lindsey Good in her only film role) is obsessed with
angels. Paper angels cover the walls of her bedroom, and she never
tires of hearing The Littlest Angel, especially as read to her by her big brother Whitey (Cody Newton). Most of all, the basic storyline reminds me of A Christmas Miracle, the Touched By an Angel episode about a young man and the terminally ill little girl he loves like a sister.
Whitey’s family is new in town. His dad is dead and his overwhelmed
mother (Diana Scarwid) has taken up with an abusive boyfriend. They’re
on the brink of destitution. Initially, he resents Jerry Barlow, a white
bread kind of kid with an idyllic home life, but when the boys begin to
share a paper route, it doesn’t take long for them to become friends.
This movie is primarily the story of that friendship. While we
occasionally see Whitey without Jerry, it really is the latter boy whose
perspective we share. The tale is framed by his recollections as an
adult (Keith Carradine) many years later.
I recognized
Carradine in his brief role, but there was something even more familiar
about Jerry as a youngster. It wasn’t until I finished the movie that I
caught actor’s name and discovered that he was Michael Welch, who played
Luke, Joan’s super-geeky younger brother in Joan of Arcadia.
He’s much younger in this movie than in the series, even though they
both came out the same year; the filming must have been done in the late
1990s, with the release presumably delayed because of the death of
director Alexander Johnston. Both boys give solid performances, but
Welch is especially good, showing us the subtle changes that occur
within this boy as he becomes more attuned to the bitter realities of
life without losing his sense of hope or devotion to his friend.
The most pressing issue of the time is a polio epidemic. The army has
set up camp nearby to treat cases, and though they try to assure the
public that being in proximity to someone with polio will not result in
one catching the disease, many families are panicking. Whitey, his mom
and his sister are disregarded enough because of their poverty; once it
becomes clear that Sandy has polio, many townspeople shun them entirely,
fearing the repercussions of close contact. Meanwhile, she keeps
getting sicker, and Jerry’s own dream of getting a bike must be put on
hold as he throws his efforts into helping Whitey get an angel doll for
her for Christmas.
The Angel Doll is an old-fashioned story that deals with problems that many children still must face. It reminded me of Kit Kittredge
in that it is relatable historical fiction presented in an appealing
and family-friendly way. There’s a quaint charm to the town when it
isn’t in the grip of paranoia; a kindly shopkeeper played by Pat Hingle
adds to the Mayberryish feel. Aside from a whispered campout
conversation involving flirtatious women on the boys’ paper routes, a
shadowy glimpse of a heated argument between Mrs. Black and her
boyfriend and a peek inside the makeshift hospital full of debilitated
patients, everything in this movie is appropriate for all ages, while
it’s presented artfully enough that the whole family ought to be able to
enjoy it together. You have to be able to tolerate a bit of schmaltz to
enjoy The Angel Doll, but if that’s not too tall an order, it’s a wonderful movie to curl up to on a chilly winter evening.
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