Home Town Story | |
---|---|
Directed by | Arthur Pierson |
Written by | Arthur Pierson |
Produced by | Arthur Pierson |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Lucien N. Andriot |
Edited by | William F. Claxton |
Music by | |
Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
Release date |
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Running time | 61 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Box 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.
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.
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]
Alan Hale Jr. was an American actor and restaurateur. He was the son of actor Alan Hale Sr. His television career spanned four decades, but he was best known for his secondary lead role as Captain Jonas Grumby, better known as The Skipper, on the 1960s CBS comedy series Gilligan's Island (1964–1967), a role he reprised in three Gilligan's Island television films and two spin-off cartoon series.
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