Professor Popinjay's Compendium of Perspicacity

A Non-Review by Professor Popinjay

(1989)

Yes it’s a semi old movie no one ever saw and no one will want to read about but I’m writing about it anyway because it deserves it, dang it! Deal with it!

I came across Caddie Woodlawn and could have sworn I’d seen it.  Yet, I couldn’t recall much of it. I knew it starred Emily Schulman (whom most would remember as the annoying neighbor girl from Small Wonders) and she has a hoity-toity cousin visit her family.

Now I remember! There was something wrong with the vhs tape and it became unwatchable. That explains it.

For some reason on the IMDB page for this film, Emily Schulman isn’t listed in the cast until 18 entries in. She is the only actress emblazoned on the freaking vhs box art! The movie’s title is her character’s name. Emily IS Caddy Woodlawn! She’s the first and last of this movie but apparently she’s not important enough to get top billing!?!

Even the film itself lists the actors in alphabetical order in the opening credits which puts Schulman WAY down the line. I guess we’ll have no pretense about not praising one actor above the other. That’s too bad for Emily because she was impressive for her age. Quite the actress.

This is one of those cases I wished I hadn’t researched the film before seeing it. Had I avoided that, I would have been able to take this film more seriously. It was fairly serious at times and well done in that way but somewhere I read that the sequel to the book this film is based on is called “Magical Melons”. I searched up Magical Melons on Google and I have to say, Caddie’s story takes a turn I wasn’t expecting. That or I downloaded the wrong Magical Melons movie.

I made a lot of assumptions from the vhs cover which features Caddie, smiling with a heavy amount of mischief in her eye. Okay, is this like a Pippi Longstocking ripoff or something? No.

Based on the book by Carol Ryrie Brink, this film tells the tale of Caroline “Caddie” Woodlawn who lives in Wisconsin in 1860. According to my wife who tried to read the book, it’s very episodic but that’s not really the case with the movie. They did a good job segueing and foreshadowing, so it flows well. Granted the situations at the beginning of the film are definitely resolved and pushed to the back burner as the film progresses. Her hoity-toity cousin all but disappears from the second half.

This whole thing culminates in a conflict between settlers in Dun county and the Sioux tribe with some confusion around part of the Dakota tribe. There’s a lot of fear and hysteria and assumptions made and hysteria being what it is, things get heated. It’s up to Caddie, who knows the Dakotas as friends, to do what she must to help quell this difficult situation. There’s many opportunities for people to show their quality. Some prove to be part of the problem while others are grand examples of compassion especially toward those whom others might label an enemy. People who saw me watching this thought I was terribly upset by something. It was an emotional experience for me.

I was particularly impressed by Caddie’s mother. Her husband is gone a long while trying to sort things out. People have been gathering at their homestead, preparing to fight and presuming Caddie’s father ain’t coming back. One upstart in particular is causing all kinds of trouble and riling folk up. Caddie’s mom, who has for much of the film been touting the notion of getting Caddie refined and more ladylike, tells this fella what-for and deftly puts him right in his place in a very un-ladylike way! She later says she could not have taught Caddie to be so brave but her example was lesson enough in my opinion. Mom, Dad, and Caddie were all amazing characters who did what needed to be done despite all naysayers and accusers.

If this story is this good, I can only imagine what Magical Melons is like.