Product Details

• Actors: Robert Young, Laraine Day, Fay Bainter, Nigel Bruce, Margaret O'Brien
• Directors: Herbert Kline, W.S. Van Dyke
• Writers: David Hertz, William L. White, William Ludwig
• Producers: B.P. Fineman, Dore Schary
• Format: Black & White, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: MGM (Warner)
• VHS Release Date: December 23, 1993
• Run Time: 81 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 630247812X
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #161,037 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Flog the Isolationists, June 18, 2001

By 

John R. Bridell (Minneapolis, MN USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Journey for Margaret [VHS] (VHS Tape)

JOURNEY FOR MARGARET is the 1940s WWII film that made you want to take to the streets and flog the isolationists. It does an especially credible job of filming the London Blitz of 1940, but has a message that, "The real damage is to England's families and children--not the buildings portrayed by rubble." I first saw this film as a teenager when it was released. We were tough, pool-hall guys and I sobbed. Loraine Day, as Robert Young's wife, stole my heart and I never forgave her for marrying Leo "The Lip" Durocher, manager of the then Brooklyn Dodgers. Young had his role of good American guy under contol; a role which could have been played for maudlin effect. Of the two children stars, little Margaret O'Brien has the upper hand in scene sense. Well cast, this little girl made Americans forget about Shirley Temple. Too bad they didn't entitle this film, "Little Miss Knickers." My wife and I saw this film again last night. I sobbed a tear or two just like in 1942. This film ought to be required viewing in every American history class from elementary, high school, and college.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I fell in love with this movie!, January 15, 2004

By 

ms_black (USofA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Journey for Margaret [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Bad summary: A woman looses the ability to have children after being injured in a bombing in London, and her husband (a columnist) looses faith in his work. Through two orphaned children the man finds hope again, and the boy and girl eventually travel to America to stay with him and his wife. The end. :)

I don't even know the words to say, that would form the portrait in my mind this film has rendered to me. All I can say is that it has touched me in a manner that no special effects, no computer enhancing could ever bring. Films of today merely attempt to imitate the emotions involved in good story telling. It's films like this that prove... that stories such as this... can still transcend time to touch even those people who have not had to experience war, descending upon their own doorsteps, to alter the lives of their families.

Perhaps I dramatize it overly so, but that is how I felt as I watched.

I love the end of the movie when the children see the city lights of New York!

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Poignant "Journey", February 11, 2001

By 

"sopera" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Journey for Margaret [VHS] (VHS Tape)

"A Journey for Margaret" is a "World War II film" unlike any other. It was filmed during the war, in 1941...before the attack on Pearl Harbor. The tale is told from the perspective of the youngest victims of the Blitz on London: the children who witnessed and survived the bombings.

"Journey"'s story concerns an American journalist (Robert Young) and his visits to a home for Blitz orphans. His concern for the children deepens as he is exposed to their strange and terrifying world. The youngsters in the orphanage sleep not in bedrooms but in underground bunkers, listening to the phonograph as warplanes roar overhead. They scream and cry when they see strangers. One girl, four year old Margaret (Margaret O'Brien) wears a bomb shell on a string around her neck. She has never seen a city with "the lights on at night," having grown up with blacked-out windows in London.

Young becomes attached to Margaret and her friend Peter, and endeavors, with his wife, to adopt them and take them to safety in America. However, the travel logistics make the "journey" much more difficult than anticipated, and the couple must contemplate leaving one child behind.

This film is a chilling commentary on the devastation of war and its effects on children. It is strong and brutally honest, and serves as a compelling argument for peace.