Take Me To Town (1953)

On the run from the law, a saloon entertainer (Ann Sheridan) finds herself in a small rural town up in mountain country. It seems the perfect place to hide but when she's tracked down by a U.S. Marshal (Larry Gates), she escapes to a mountain cabin where a widower (Sterling Hayden) and his three children (Lee Aaker, Harvey Grant, Dustey Henley) live where she offers to take care of the children while their father is away working as a lumberjack. Directed by Douglas Sirk, this is a charming Western romantic comedy. Thanks to Richard Morris's screenplay, Sirk's assured direction, Sheridan's sassiness and three solid performances by the adolescents that eschew the usual attack of the cutes that mar most child performances of the era, this bit of rustic whimsy goes down like honey. It avoids the usual sentimentality inherent in such a set up. A pleasant surprise! With Fess Parker, Lee Patrick, Guy Williams, Phillip Reed, Ann Tyrrell and Alice Kelley.