The Silver Screen Oasis

here's a quick list of my favourites

Charlie Chaplin and Edna Purviance-Jackie Googan in The Kid
Horst Buchholz-Hayley Mills in Tiger Bay
All the Morgan grown ups-Roddy McDowell in How Green Is My Valley
Alan Bates and Bernard Lee-Hayley Mills in Whistle Down The Wind
Brian Keith and Maureen O'Hara-Hayley Mills in The Parent Trap
Victor McLaglen and C Aubrey Smith-Shirley Temple in Wee Willie Winkie
C Aubrey Smith-Margaret O'Brien in Little Women
Marilyn Monroe and Robert Mitchum-Tommy Rettig in River Of No Return
Richard Widmark and Felicity Farr-Tommy Rettig n The Last Wagon
Phyilis Calvert and Jack Hawkins-Mandy Miller in Mandy
Mickey Rooney-Liz Taylor-National Velvet
Robert Donat-Terry Kilburn in Goodbye Mr. Chips

1. Edward G. Robinson and Margaret O'Brien - "Our Vines Have Tender Grapes"

2. Gregory Peck, Mary Badham, and Phillip Alford - "To Kill a Mockingbird"

3. Thomas Mitchell and Margaret O'Brien - "Three Wise Fools"

4. Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke - "The Miracle Worker"

5. James Dunn and Peggy Ann Garner - "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn"

Charlie Chaplin and Jackie Coogan in The Kid

Judy Garland and Margaret O'Brein in Meet Me In St Louis

Gene Kelly and Sharon McManus in Anchors Aweigh

Marlene Dietrich and Dickie Moore in Blonde Venus

Richard Widmark and Tommy Rettigin Panic in the Streets
John Barrymore and Virginia Weidler in The Great Man Votes
Lionel Barrymore and Cedric Hardwicke with Bobs Watson in On Borrowed Time
Orson Welles and Natalie Wood in Tomorrow is Forever
Danny Kaye and any child in any movie

Katharine Hepburn was always good with kids in movies, when she had any around, that is. Her scenes with Gaetano Autiero as the pint-sized con artist in Summertime are some of my favorites in this movie. She's also very comfortable with Virginia Wiedler in Philadelphia Story.

All the grown-ups, particulary Alan Ladd with Branden De Wilde in Shane

Great child performances in so many films.
I'd add Sherry Jackson and Richard Eyer in COME NEXT SPRING, with Ann Sheridan and Steve Cochran as their parents.

Would like to add a boy who brought us much enjoyment as he grew and much pain from his sad end.

Among that enjoyment, one of the finest noir thrillers ever, The Window (1949), starring Barbara Hale, Arthur Kennedy, Paul Stewart, Ruth Roman, and the boy who lives on in our hearts: Bobby Driscoll.

Great addition, Lucky.

mongoII wrote:Great addition, Lucky.

Same here Joe and Lucky!

Thank you, both. Good to know others admire the work of this talented young actor.

I probably should have mentioned that he could play comedy, too, holding his own with the very best. Example: That very happy film, The Happy Time.

Sad to think this was his last film (not counting voice work on Peter Pan). Then Hollywood deserted him, as it seems to do to all child actors once they are too old to play a child and not old enough to play an adult.

A few years of the odd TV guest role and then the long slide into darkness.

From what I have seen, I think Robert Young does an excellent job playing alongside child actors. For example, I really enjoyed his effervescent, yet fatherly character of Cuffy in The Canterville Ghost.

I am very excited to see Stowaway next month to see his interactions with Shirley Temple!

Good topic!

But if I had to pick just one, I'd choose Eddie Robinson and Margaret O'Brien. The sweetness of their father/daughter relationship always brings a sentimental tear to my eye and that last scene between the two always threatens to turn this "tough guy" into a blubbering idiot. Especially considering what a 180 change of pace role the Norwegian father was for Eddie. And then just three years later he would return to vicious form as Johnny Rocco in KEY LARGO. Such a brilliant actor, to convincingly portray two completely opposite characters.

Honorable mention: HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY, A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN and JOURNEY FOR MARGARET.

We're all forgetting the greatest of them all: W. C. Fields!

norfious, I feel the same way about Robert Young in The Canterville Ghost when he interacts with Margaret O'Brien, and Charles Laughton's scenes were also cute.