The One and Only, Genuine, Orignial Family Band (1968)

There is an in-joke in my family about my violently hating the nations 23rd president Benjamin Harrison (served 1889-1893), so it's only fitting that I should seek out this semi-obscure Disney film which features a family divided by the 1888 presidential contest between Harrison and incumbent president Grover Cleveland. The One and Only, Genuine, original Family Band is one of the last movies that Walt Disney was personal involved in supervising the production of prior to his December 1966 death from a tumor in his left lung. Based on the 1961 book The Family Band : from the Missouri to the Black Hills, 1881-1900 by Laura Bower Van Nuys, the project was begun with the intent that it be aired as a two part offering for Disney's weekly television show, but after the Sherman Brothers of Mary Poppins fame where brought in to do the music it was expanded to be a full length theatrical feature.

The music as you would expect from the Sherman Brothers is catchy, the tone light hearted and family friendly, the political disagreements that the film chronicles were 80 years out of date by the time of its release so they feel muted (but would a family comedy about Roosevelt's New Deal programs go over as well in the age of the Tea Party?). The cast is great, they got Walter Brennan who steals the show as grandpa Bower, even though he was apparently reading most of his lines off of cue cards during production. Buddy Ebsen was still light on his feat at nearly sixty years of age as father Calvin, and the romantic leads from the previous years Fred MacMurry vehicle The Happiest Millionaire, Lesley Ann Warren and John Davidson are reunited as daughter Alice and her intended, Republican newspaper man Joe Carder. I must add that Lesley Ann Warren's face is just absolutely beautiful. The film also features Goldie Hawn in her first film role, and her future husband Kurt Russell as Sidney Bower. I found this to be a very enjoyable musical family comedy, built entertainingly around a relatively obscure political contest.   ***