I'd Climb the Highest Mountain

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I'd Climb the Highest Mountain
Highest Mountain .jpg
Video cover
Directed by Henry King
Written by Lamar Trotti
Based on A Circuit Rider's Wife
1910 novel
by Corra Harris
Produced byLamar Trotti
Starring Susan Hayward
William Lundigan
Rory Calhoun
Barbara Bates
Gene Lockhart
Alexander Knox
Lynn Bari
Cinematography Edward Cronjager
Edited by Barbara McLean
Music by Sol Kaplan
Distributed by Twentieth Century-Fox
Release dates
  • February 6, 1951 (1951-02-06)(Atlanta) [1]
  • May 9, 1951 (1951-05-09)(New York) [2]
Running time
88 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Box office$2,150,000 (US rentals) [3] [4]

I'd Climb the Highest Mountain is a 1951 Technicolor religious drama film directed by Henry King, produced by Lamar Trotti and starring Susan Hayward and William Lundigan. The screenplay was written by Trotti based the 1910 novel A Circuit-Rider's Wife [2] by Corra Harris about a minister and his wife in southern Appalachia.

Contents

Plot

William Thompson is a minister from the Deep South who has recently married Mary Elizabeth, a city woman. William is assigned a new parish and moves with his wife to a town in Georgia's Blue Ridge Mountains, where he tends to the spiritual and emotional needs of his small church. The poverty and isolation of the region, and the everyday problems of local people, put a strain on the couple's faith and marriage.

The townspeople have doubts about the new minister, and he must help his city-bred wife adjust to life in the country. As he leads his congregation through hardships, including an epidemic causing some deaths, he proves his worth as a pastor.

Cast

Production

The film was shot in Dawsonville, Georgia, in the Appalachian Mountains, an unusual and obscure location. Other scenes were filmed in the Georgia towns of Sautee-Nacoochee, Demorest and Cleveland.

On May 31, 1950, Hayward was nearly killed when she slipped at Amicalola Falls, which she had been photographing during a break from production. William Gray, a studio chauffeur, caught her and they escaped with only minor injuries. [5]

Release

The film's world premiere was held at the Paramount Theatre in Atlanta on February 6, 1951 with the film's star Susan Hayward and director Henry King in attendance. All proceeds were donated to Tallulah Falls School. [1]

Reception

In a contemporary review for The New York Times , critic Bosley Crowther wrote: "'I'd Climb the Highest Mountain' ... is not what you'd call a picture with a strong dramatic plot, rising to peaks of high excitement or theatrical suspense. It is rather a loosely rambling recount of touching and amusing episodes in the lives of a country parson and his inexperienced city-bred wife as they patiently devote then1selves to the service of the people back in the hills. But it is done with such winning affection and it is so agreeably played by William Lundigan as the parson that it carries a warm and cheering glow." [2]

References

  1. 1 2 Folk St. John, Wylly (1951-02-04). "The Real Circuit-Rider's Wife of 'I'd Climb the Highest Mountain'". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution . p. 7, Magazine section.
  2. 1 2 3 Crowther, Bosley (1951-05-10). "The Screen: Three Films in Premieres Here". The New York Times . p. 38.
  3. ↑ 'The Top Box Office Hits of 1951', Variety, January 2, 1952
  4. ↑ Aubrey Solomon, Twentieth Century-Fox: A Corporate and Financial History Rowman & Littlefield, 2002 p 223
  5. ↑ "Chauffeur Saves Star From Falls". New York Daily News . 1950-06-02.
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