Figure 1.--This is Edward G. Robinson with Margaret O'Brien and Jackie 'Butch' Jenkins in the movie 'Our Vines Have Tender Grapes' (1945). The film is a paean to small-town America. It is told through the eyes of Margaret's character, Selma. She is the daughter of an immigrant Norwegian farmer. Butch plays her friend. The values in the film are profound. The economics of American farming e=re off. New farmers in the Upper-Midwest did not have tractors.

Residents of Benson Junction, a small Wisconsin town, share their joys and sorrows. The movie is based on George Victor Martin's popular 1940 novel by the same title. The small real life farming community of Benson Corners, Portage County, Wisconsin was Martin's inspiration for the book. It is a paean to small town America. The screenplay was the work of Dalton Trumbo. It was his last film before being blacklisted because he refused to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee (1947). He subsequently won two Academy Awards under other names. Margaret O'Brien insisted later that the movie was largely ignored because of Trumbo's political difficulties. Trumbo was an undeniably brilliant screen writer. Had his career ended here, America would have losr several important films. He like many other liberal Americans were, however, unaware of 1) the threat posed by the Soviet Union, 2) the terrible crimes being committd by the NKVD, and 3) the extent of the Soviet espionage effort. While the excesses of the Cold war anti-Communist effort are widely discussed today, the threarts and dangers are comminly minimized. The plot is about the Norwegian-American residents of a small Wisconsin farming community. It is a look at the joys and tragedies of life as seen through the eyes of a widowed, Norwegian born Wisconsin farmer ovingly raises his daughter. The film is set in contemprary times during World War II Butch Jenkins in this bit of classic Americana appears with Margaret O'Brien, then at the top of her career. The plot unfolds through the viewpoint of O'Brien's character, little Selma. She expeiences the childhood adventures: making friends, a pet calf, Christmas, a frightening expeience down a torential river, a barn fire, and a ride on a circus elephant�s trunk. The title may seem familiar, it comes from the King James Bible. It reads, "Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes." [Song of Solomn 2: 15]