Plot
Ruby Corey, a poor backwoods girl living in the small North Carolina town of Braddock, is still in love with Boake Tackman. During high school, Ruby had rebuffed his aggressive advances, and was taken in for a couple of years by a kind wealthy businessman and his wife, who protected her and taught her the skills a lady would need. She moved back home when her father needed her help. Boake's family used to be wealthy, but after generations of profligacy all he has left is the land he drained and farmed. He starts a relationship with her but plans to marry a local woman with a rich family. When she hears the news, Ruby marries her widowed, former benefactor, Mr. Jim Gentry, despite not loving him.
Her background keeps her from being accepted by most of Jim's peers, most of whom decline to attend their after-wedding party. While at another party, Jim gets into a fistfight with Boake after witnessing him dancing with Ruby. Jim calls Ruby a tramp who looks like a lady but doesn't behave like one. She leaves in tears, and later that night, he apologizes. The next day Jim and Ruby go sailing, where he tells her he "doesn't mind being second best" and she admits she really does love him. A loose rope results in Jim being knocked overboard by the boom, leaving Ruby widowed and distraught.
The local paper reports that foul play cannot be ruled out, in other words that she may have murdered Jim for his fortune, and mentions the fistfight between Jim and Boake. Jim's friends renounce her and she receives accusatory phone calls and harassment from the townspeople. Ruby uses Jim's money to begin a campaign against everyone who slighted her, calling in debts to close down people's businesses as well as the newspaper that slandered her. Her brother comes to beg her for leniency, but she throws him out, warning she is just getting started. When Boake visits, she gives him the promissory-note he had signed and which was acquired by Gentry, and offers to run off with him, but he rejects her, saying that for all her money she can't buy her way out of the swamp, and she can't buy him.
Ruby has Boake's land flooded, ruining the crops. After seeing her fury, he goes back to her. Boake and Ruby go to her father's annual duck-hunting party where she goes back to her country roots and Boake drinks away his resentment before visiting her room late at night.
While hunting the next day, Boake turns on Ruby in retaliation for her actions but she apologizes. Just then, her estranged brother Jewel Corey begins to shoot at the couple while quoting Bible verses about the wickedness of women and sinners who must be struck down. They try to hide in the swamp but Jewel shoots Boake in the abdomen, killing him; Ruby goes after Jewel and guns him down. Cradling Boake in her arms, Ruby laments her decisions.
Ruby later becomes the skipper of a fishing boat, forever looked down upon by the townspeople.
Production
Development
King Vidor, who was hired as director, had previously directed actress Jennifer Jones in Duel in the Sun (1946), produced by Jones's husband, David O. Selznick. Vidor had directed Bird of Paradise (1932), also produced by Selznick, decades earlier. During the filming of Duel in the Sun, tensions rose between Vidor and Selznick near the production's completion due to what Vidor felt was "near-constant intervention" from Selznick. However, as Selznick was not a credited producer on Ruby Gentry, Vidor agreed to direct, as he had enjoyed working with Jones.
Casting
Commenting on Jones's performance style, Vidor stated: "When I first saw Jennifer, I was impressed by the fact that her emotional reactions registered so clearly on her face. It is difficult to exactly define this quality... Whatever gentleness and patience [a] director expanded on Jennifer, he was rewarded a hundred-fold with a sensitive and intriguing performance."
Filming
Though some establishing shots were completed in North Carolina, Ruby Gentry was mostly filmed in California in Paso Robles, San Luis Obispo, San Marino, Morro Bay, Pismo Beach, and director King Vidor's private ranch in Willow Creek. [6]
Unlike his previous film starring Jones, Duel in the Sun, Vidor reflected on the filming of Ruby Gentry favorably, feeling he had significant creative freedom during the production.
Theme song
The film's theme song, "Ruby", was composed by Heinz Eric Roemheld. At the time of the film's release, the theme enjoyed much popularity in orchestral recordings by Les Baxter, with harmonica solo by Danny Welton., [8] Victor Young And His Singing Strings with George Fields on harmonica (Columbia DO-70040, Australia), Richard Hayman And His Orchestra with Richard Hayman on harmonica, and Jerry Murad and the Harmonicats. It has subsequently become a jazz and pop standard, both as an instrumental and with lyrics by Mitchell Parish, recorded by such artists as Ray Charles and Neil Diamond, Les Welch & His Orchestra, with vocals by Richard Gray (Festival-Manhattan FM75, a shellac 78 in Australia), and Vic Damone, on his 1962 Capitol album The Lively Ones (Capitol T1748).
Reception
Box office
Ruby Gentry grossed $1.75 million in the United States. [1]
Critical response
Dorothy Masters of the New York Daily News felt Jones was miscast in the lead role, deeming her performance "disastrous," but awarded the film a three out of five-star rating. [20] W. Ward Marsh of The Plain Dealer described the film as "repellant" and found its characters and screenplay distasteful, but conceded, "I have no fault to find with anybody's acting." [21]
Dale Freeman, writing for the Springfield Leader and Press , uniformly praised the lead performances of Jones, Heston, and Malden, while describing the film as "earthy and realistic—and hard-hitting." [22]
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes , 63% of 8 critics' reviews are positive. [23]
In 2022, Richard Brody of The New Yorker praised the film as a "volatile blend of sex, death, money, revenge, class prejudice, religious fanaticism, and the burden of history," praising it as "one of the most scathing, furious films of classic-era Hollywood." [24]
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