Savannah Smiles (1982) on Netflix
Ignored by her parents while her father runs for the Senate, six-year-old Savannah slips into the back seat of a car belonging to Alvie and Boots, two escaped convicts.
- Netflix3.7/5
- IMDb7.2/102,448 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes89%
Trailer
Plot summary
Six-year-old Savannah is the daughter of a wealthy Salt Lake City businessman who is running for the United States Senate, and her parents have little time for her. She packs a bag and writes a note, then puts her suitcase in her aunt's car before a trip to the park. There she slips away and climbs into the back seat of a car belonging to Alvin "Alvie" Gibbs and Boots "Bootsie" McGaffee, two escaped convicts. Her father finds the note but burns it, fearing that word of a runaway daughter would damage his election chances, and tells the maid to keep quiet. The convicts take her along and learn that her parents have offered a reward of $100,000 for her return, and they puzzle over how to hand her back and collect it without being sent to prison.
Cast
- Barbara Stangeras Joan Driscoll
- Ray Anzaloneas Pharmacist
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Savannah Smiles (1982)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Miller got the idea when his daughter was a toddler: her curly blonde hair and smiling face convinced him a movie could be built around that alone, and for a plot he borrowed from the 1937 French film La Grande Illusion, in which an escaped prisoner hides out with a young widow and is softened by her daughter's kindness.
- Sixty child actresses tried out for the part of Savannah, and the field was narrowed to twelve who were asked to audition in front of Miller, among them a young Drew Barrymore.
- Asked at her audition to tell any bedtime story she knew, Bridgette Andersen told Miller the story of Br'er Rabbit; he liked her telling of it so much that he put the story into the movie.
