Phil C
03-09-2006, 12:23 PM
It starts at 1:45 P.M.
This is a great 1936 drama about small town life in America in the 30s and stars Pat O'Brien (who later stared as Knute Rockne in the great football movie) as the doctor and Josephine Hutchinson as his wife from Chicago that has trouble adjusting to small town life and Ross Alexander as the artist that she tries to help (sadly he would commit suicide a year after the movie was made and he had potentially great talent). Josephine starts out on the wrong foot with the townsfolks (and she was already resented for getting one of the town's most sought after eligible bachelors) and after that it is downhill all the way.
WARNING - YOU MAY WANT TO STOP READING NOW IF YOU PLAN
TO SEE IT IF KNOWING THE ENDING WILL RUIN IT FOR YOU. THIS IS A SPOILER WARNING!
Like many of us I was raised in a small town. In small town life there are times when people are the most wonderful people in the world and will do anything to help you. At other times if they get upset with you they can be the worse people in the world and make life miserable for you forcing you to move away (which is a rare extreme). Generally folks usually fall at a fair medium between the two extremes. This movie presents small towns at it's worse from beginning of the movie to the end. The villian in the movie is the town. The Doctor's wife tries to improve the town and help people but due to their unconcern or hate or failure to look at themselves they show only hate to the wife making her life so miserable and blaming her on things not her fault that she leaves town. The movie ends when she comes back from the city to the doctor because of her love for him.
Pat O'Brien is very good as the doctor that wants to live in the small town but never does seem to realize what it has done to his wife. I feel most any husband that saw what the town was doing to his wife and would move away from that environment especailly a doctor who could easily make the move especially in the 30s. Of course like most movies in the 30s it implies that they will both be happy in the town since they have each other and can endure the town's cruelty but in real life it would only be a matter of time before trouble would start again.
Interesting movie especially for the time it was made even though not as good as Dawn at Socorro or God's Gun.
This is a great 1936 drama about small town life in America in the 30s and stars Pat O'Brien (who later stared as Knute Rockne in the great football movie) as the doctor and Josephine Hutchinson as his wife from Chicago that has trouble adjusting to small town life and Ross Alexander as the artist that she tries to help (sadly he would commit suicide a year after the movie was made and he had potentially great talent). Josephine starts out on the wrong foot with the townsfolks (and she was already resented for getting one of the town's most sought after eligible bachelors) and after that it is downhill all the way.
WARNING - YOU MAY WANT TO STOP READING NOW IF YOU PLAN
TO SEE IT IF KNOWING THE ENDING WILL RUIN IT FOR YOU. THIS IS A SPOILER WARNING!
Like many of us I was raised in a small town. In small town life there are times when people are the most wonderful people in the world and will do anything to help you. At other times if they get upset with you they can be the worse people in the world and make life miserable for you forcing you to move away (which is a rare extreme). Generally folks usually fall at a fair medium between the two extremes. This movie presents small towns at it's worse from beginning of the movie to the end. The villian in the movie is the town. The Doctor's wife tries to improve the town and help people but due to their unconcern or hate or failure to look at themselves they show only hate to the wife making her life so miserable and blaming her on things not her fault that she leaves town. The movie ends when she comes back from the city to the doctor because of her love for him.
Pat O'Brien is very good as the doctor that wants to live in the small town but never does seem to realize what it has done to his wife. I feel most any husband that saw what the town was doing to his wife and would move away from that environment especailly a doctor who could easily make the move especially in the 30s. Of course like most movies in the 30s it implies that they will both be happy in the town since they have each other and can endure the town's cruelty but in real life it would only be a matter of time before trouble would start again.
Interesting movie especially for the time it was made even though not as good as Dawn at Socorro or God's Gun.