“Stylish, richly colored Mamoulian musical, much underrated when it first appeared, about the ecstasies and heartaches of an adolescent (Mickey Rooney) growing up in small-town America at the turn of the century. Some delightful performances, especially from Agnes Moorehead as a spinster aunt and Frank Morgan as a drunken uncle, and some of Mamoulian's most inventive musical numbers, e.g. ‘The Stanley Steamer Song,' built around a family outing in a new motorcar, and ‘You Mustn't Be Afraid to Fall in Love,' a Mickey Rooney/Gloria DeHaven duet culminating in a lyrical polka danced across a bright green lawn.”