Henry King

Storyline
In 1854, the patriarch Patrick O’Leary of the O’Leary family dies in an accident nearby Chicago while traveling amid-western prairie. His wife Molly O’Leary raises her three sons alone working as laundress. Her son Jack becomes an idealistic lawyer; Dion is a gambler; and Bob helps his mother in the laundry business and marries local Gretchen (June Storey) in the old area known as The Patch. Dion meets the singer Belle Fawcett in the cabaret owned by Gil Warren and they fall in love with each other and become lovers. They also open a business of their own to compete with Gil that becomes their enemy. However Gil invites Dion to join the politics with him but Dion plots a scheme with tragic consequences.Read More »

Elderly schoolteacher Nora Trinell, waiting to meet presidential nominee Dewey Roberts, recalls him as her student back in 1916 and his relation to Dan Hopkins, the man she married and lost.Read More »

Half-Indian girl brought up in a wealthy household is loved by the son of the house against his family’s wishes and loves another Indian employed by the household.Read More »

A woman reminisces about her teenage years in the 1920s, when she fell in love with her teacher.Read More »

Synopsis:
The Frake family attend the Iowa State Fair. Father Abel enters his Hampshire boar, Blue Boy, in the hog contents. Mother Melissa enters the mincemeat competition. And their children, Margy and Wayne, find love with newspaper reporter Pat Gilbert and trapeze artist Emily Joyce. But will everyone return home safe and happy or will hearts be broken?Read More »

Billy Bigelow has been dead for fifteen years, and now outside the pearly gates, he long waived his right to go back to Earth for a day. But he has heard that there is a problem with his family, namely his wife Julie Bigelow née Jordan and the child he never met, that problem with which he would now like to head back to Earth to assist in rectifying. Before he is allowed back to Earth, he has to get the OK from the gatekeeper, to who he tells his story… Immediately attracted to each other, he and Julie met when he worked as a carousel barker. Both stated to the other that they did not believe in love or marriage, but they did get married. Because the shrewish carousel owner, Mrs. Mullin, was attracted to Billy herself, and since she believed he was only of use as a barker if he was single to attract the young women to the carousel, she fired him. With no other job skills and unwilling to take just any job, Billy did not provide for Julie but rather lived off Julie’s Aunt Nettie. But Billy figured he could be the breadwinner through his association with a criminal lowlife named Jigger Craigin, which led to his death. In going back to Earth, Billy not only hopes to help his child, but “tell” Julie of his true feeling for her.Read More »

Quote:
Most actors, especially established stars, yearn for roles that allow them to stretch their performance muscles and play against type. Most big stars who attained their status in the heyday of the studio system often found themselves stifled by typecasting, especially if they enjoyed overwhelming success in any given role. Studio executives weren’t about to risk placing an established property in something unexpected, and if the paying public had shown their approval by lining up at the box office for, say, Tyrone Power as a swashbuckling hero, then Tyrone Power as a swashbuckling hero is exactly what the public would be offered. Read More »

Synopsis: Charlotte Danfield (Fay Bainter), a member of an old Maryland family with horse breeding in its blood, orders her entire stable sold after her husband meets his death in a hunting accident. She also forbids her son Lee (John Payne) to ride again, but when the boy remains friendly with Charlotte’s old horse trainer, William Stewart (Walter Brennan), and his granddaugther Linda (Brenda Joyce), Charlotte ships him off to school in Europe to remove him from Maryland’s horse-oriented environment. Horses are in Lee’s blood, however, so when he returns home a grown man and learns that “Uncle Bill” is grooming “Cavalier” for the Maryland Cup, he eagerly offers to ride the steed. Later, after acquiescing to Charlotte’s wish that he not ride, Lee, out of a sense of loyalty to Uncle Bill, defies his mother’s will. Read More »

From anttialanenfilmdiary.blogspot.com
Ben Halper sets up his barber’s shop at the turn of the century in Sevillinois and watches the town grow around him. Thinking it is for the best, he tries to shield his wife Nellie from the worries of the world. She finally rebels while he is away at war and takes a fateful trip to Chicago. This turns out to be the first of a number of critical family crises for Ben.Read More »