"The Angel Doll"

Excellent movie that brings back many memories from the 1950s... back when a radio, not a TV, was the center of entertainment in most living rooms:

I especially liked this movie because time was taken to set the 'mood' and 'atmosphere'... before the actual plot of the film was ever known.

Parts of an Amazon review:

The film is based upon the absolute reign of terror of the polio epidemics in America in the early 1950s, when ... many children died from it without anyone knowing how they even got the disease. People who were not alive in 1950 cannot possibly imagine the hysteria and terror inspired by polio in America, and how it effected the movements and activities of every child in the country. This is all well documented in this film, and should be required viewing for social and medical historians. Diana Scarwid is wonderful as the hopelessly depressed alcoholic mother of Cody Newton in this bittersweet drama. The story turns on the polio-stricken little girl Sandy's obsession with angels, and her wish for an 'angel doll'. Her brother wishes to buy one for her but cannot find one, then his money is stolen by another boy, but his friend gives him his own money, and the search for the angel doll continues. A friendly black family comes to the rescue, and the mother turns an ordinary doll into an angel doll for them. Everything about this charming film, narrated by Keith Carradine who plays the grown-up Michael Welch and remembers what happened in his youth, is delightful, fresh and natural.

Extra features on the DVD include comments from the writers, director, and two of the boys:

"The Angel Doll" presents a definition of what real friendship means.

Available 11-14-10 at Amazon and at Netflix.