Home Town Story

1951 film by Arthur Pierson
  • Jeffrey Lynn
  • Donald Crisp
  • Marjorie Reynolds
  • Marilyn Monroe
  • Alan Hale Jr.
CinematographyLucien N. AndriotEdited byWilliam F. ClaxtonMusic by
  • Louis Forbes
  • Alfred Newman
Distributed byMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date
  • May 18, 1951 (1951-05-18)
Running time
61 minutesCountryUnited StatesLanguageEnglishBox office$334,000[1]

Home Town Story is a 1951 American drama film written and directed by Arthur Pierson, starring Jeffrey Lynn, Donald Crisp, and Marjorie Reynolds, with Marilyn Monroe and Alan Hale Jr.

Plot

A defeated politician, Blake Washburn, takes over as editor of a small town newspaper in an effort to get himself re-elected. His campaign is intended to be a continuing exposé of the evils of big industry, and his strategy is to publish daily screeds against enormous corporate profits that enrich shareholders.

On a school outing to an abandoned mine, Washburn's little sister is trapped in the collapse of a mine tunnel caused as the result of a disgruntled employee's negligence, and the town's industries come to her rescue. The sister is rescued and flown in a company plane to the big city, and Washburn has a change of heart and recognizes that big corporations are necessary because, "It takes bigness to do big things", a line in the film delivered by MacFarland, the maker of the medical device that saved the sister.

Cast

  • Jeffrey Lynn as Blake Washburn
  • Donald Crisp as John MacFarland
  • Marjorie Reynolds as Janice Hunt
  • Alan Hale Jr. as Slim Haskins
  • Marilyn Monroe as Iris Martin
  • Barbara Brown as Mrs. Washburn
  • Melinda Plowman as Katie Washburn
  • Renny McEvoy as Leo, the taxi driver
  • Glenn Tryon as Ken Kenlock
  • Byron Foulger as Berny Miles
  • Griff Barnett as Uncle Cliff Washburn
  • Virginia Campbell as Phoebe Hartman
  • Harry Harvey as Andy Butterworth
  • Nelson Leigh as Dr. Johnson
  • Speck Noblitt as motorcycle officer

Reception

According to MGM records, the film grossed $243,000 in the United States and Canada and $91,000 elsewhere, making a profit of $195,000.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b The Eddie Mannix Ledger, Los Angeles: Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study.

External links


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