Franco Zeffirelli's remake and update of King Vidor's 1931 tearjerker of the same name, with Jon Voight and Ricky Schroder taking the places of Wallace Beery and Jackie Cooper, and mopping up, so to speak, on their elders. The characterization of the little boy is rather like a repressive, authoritarian ideal of what a child ought to be (loyal, docile, completely uncritical in the face of repeated provocation), and it could conceivably have a pernicious effect on unloved and unrespected fathers, on expectant fathers, and on confirmed bachelors who hereafter might be shaken in their resolve. Impressionable adults who find themselves wistfully attracted to the personality traits of this boy, to the point of fancying themselves in a paternal role like the one depicted in the movie, might be closer to the mark, and happier in the long run, if they were to repair to the Humane Society and adopt a homeless pup instead. Zeffirelli appears to have accepted this Hollywood hokum as a "classic" in the same spirit as he has in the past accepted Romeo and Juliet and The Taming of the Shrew, and accordingly he has pumped it up with a kind of operatic grandeur, grace, and dignity. The result is an exceptionally well-oiled and smooth-running movie; also an exceptionally good-looking one, besmeared with a brilliance and luxuriance of color that has been characteristic of Italian artists for centuries. With Faye Dunaway, Arthur Hill, and Jack Warden. (1979) — Duncan Shepherd
This movie is not currently in theaters.