LET GO OF YESTERDAY

A very natural note here for a story of an Irish Catholic family in New York City's Washington Heights, this has sincerity and compassion in its portrayal of familiar faces and common conflicts, reflects the world between wars through Larry Callan's recall during a vigil kept at him mother's deathbed. There was his father, Daniel, who lived high and went broke at the racetracks, and never made a comeback to comfort; his mother, Connis, who worked hard to support Daniel and the three children; the devotion of spinster Aunt Eliza who look them in brought them up until her death; Larry's long months in a hospital where doctors tried to cure his tubercular spine; the decision of Veronica, the youngest, to enter a convent at 16; Larry's love for Donna, outside the Church, and the postponement of their marriage when Connia's hopeless illness intervenes... The family solidarity and sympathy here gives this portrait its warmth, and while not important, this is at all times likeable.