Summer Magic

Widow McGuire does up a dilapidated house in Maine as a home for her three kids. Hayley Mills, Disney's top live-action draw of the time, spreads sweetness, light and a queasy feeling in the pit of the stomach in this adaptation of Kate Douglas' novel Mother Carey's Chickens, but it's singing postman Osh Popham (Ives) who delivers the most memorable moment, the hit song 'The Ugly Bug Ball'. Rowland V Lee filmed an earlier version in 1938.