Molly: An American Girl on the Home Front

An American Girl on the Home Front
Written by Anna Sandor[1]
Directed by Joyce Chopra
Starring Maya Ritter
Tory Green
Hannah Fleming
Samantha Wilson
Josette Halpert
David Aaron Baker
Distributor Warner Bros. (DVD)
Disney Channel (TV)
Release
Original release
  • November 26, 2006 (2006-11-26)

[2]

An American Girl on the Home Front is the third movie in the American Girl film series, but is the first to premiere on the Disney Channel.[3] The first two movies in the series were broadcast on The WB Television Network, but the series moved since it no longer fit in with its original network following the WB/UPN merger. It premiered on November 26, 2006,[2] but was not tagged as a Disney Channel Original Movie. The film stars Maya Ritter in the title role,[4] with Molly Ringwald, David Aaron Baker, Tory Green and Genevieve Farrell in their supporting roles.[5]

The screenwriter, Anna Sandor, won the 2007 Humanitas Prize for the movie.[6][7]

Plot

Based on the "Molly: An American Girl" book series, the film is set in 1943 to 1944 during World War II.[8] 10-year-old Molly McIntire lives in the fictional town of Jefferson, Illinois with her parents and 3 siblings. Her father is an Army doctor. Molly is in the third grade at Willow Street School along with her best friends, Linda and Susan, and queen bee Alison. In the beginning, Molly, Linda, and Susan are at the movie theater talking about how they think their teacher, Miss Campbell, is nice and pretty and they think her fiance, Lieutenant Davies, is handsome as well. The girls then go to an ice cream parlor and are disappointed that they are out of ice cream, but they decide to get cherry coke instead. As Molly's 10th birthday nears, she dreams of having princess-themed tea party for her birthday, only to be disappointed to learn that her family can't afford it. Molly's older sister Jill then says she is too immature to understand how the war changes people's lives.

As Molly's class learns about the war going on and air raid drills, Molly's father announces that he must go to London to help injured soldiers. Molly is furious that her father is leaving her and going to an unsafe city, but he comforts her by calling Molly his "North Star" and telling her to look at the stars. Molly then decides she wants to be the school's "Miss Victory" but she struggles to practice her tap dancing and Allison has been dancing since she was a toddler. Molly also gets chosen to represent her class in the school spelling bee.

When Molly's mother takes a job, the girls are looked after by their neighbor Mrs. Gilford, who is stern and obsessed with her son who is in the Navy. Soon after, the McIntires must take in a British girl named Emily Bennett who is the same age as Molly. At first, Emily is very shy and Molly doesn't want to live with her but Jill insists she must. After being peppered with too many questions about her home in London, Emily lies to Linda & Susan by saying that her parents were of royalty and she lived in "Bennett Manor." When Emily wakes up in the midst of a nightmare, she confesses to Molly that her father is a bus driver, her mother has died and she lived in a small apartment above a candy shop and was not rich or royal. Molly forgives her. When Molly sees her mother baking a casserole for Mrs. Gilford, she learns that her son had been killed at war and feels empathetic toward her. Not long after, Miss Campbell's fiance had also been killed. In the end of the movie, Molly and Emily both win the spelling bee and Molly is chosen to be Miss Victory. She also is very ecstatic to learn that her father is still alive and only wounded in his leg.

Cast

Thomas Brodie Sangster as boy in spelling bee

Production

An American Girl on the Home Front was filmed in Unionville, Ontario, Canada.

References

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