Directed by:
Frank BorzageScreenplay:
Charles F. HaasCinematography:
John L. RussellComposer:
William LavaCast:
Dane Clark, Gail Russell, Ethel Barrymore, Allyn Joslyn, Rex Ingram, Harry Morgan, David Street, Selena Royle, Harry Carey Jr., Irving Bacon, Lloyd Bridges (more)VOD (1)
Plots(1)
All of his life, Danny Hawkins (Dane Clark) has been taunted and mistreated by most of the people around him, enduring innumerable beatings and other humiliations as a boy because his father was a murderer who died on the gallows. He finds it not much better as an adult, living with his aunt in the small Virginia town of Woodville -- especially when he is contending for the attentions of young schoolteacher Gilly Johnson (Gail Russell) with his boyhood tormentor Jerry Sykes (Lloyd Bridges), whose bullying and arrogance are made worse (and more galling) by the fact that he's the son of the town banker (and its richest man). Sykes picks a fight with Danny and loses for the first time, but he dies in the process. Knowing how the town thinks of him because of his father, Danny tries to hide the body. But for all of his bitterness over how he's been treated, he can't truly escape the feelings of guilt over what he's done -- nor can he escape his fear of what people will probably think. For a time, his new romance with Gilly distracts him, but he's unable to put it out of his mind for long, especially when he's forced to join his good friend Mose (Rex Ingram) on a raccoon hunt that takes them right to the pond where the body is hidden. Soon the sheriff (Allyn Joslyn) is investigating, and he can't help but confer with the one man in town whose judgment he respects nearly as much as his own -- Danny. And when Danny's deaf-mute friend, Billy (Harry Morgan), unknowingly uncovers a key piece of evidence, Danny is pushed almost to the breaking point. He's driven by his own instincts to run away, and invite almost certain capture or death, but Gilly and the sheriff see this as a chance for Danny not only to free himself of the torment over what he's done but from the past that has haunted him and blighted his life -- if only they can reach him and make him understand. (official distributor synopsis)
(more)Cast
Dane Clark
USA
Best movies:
Producers' Showcase (1954) (series)
The Name of the Game (1968) (series)
Action in the North Atlantic (1943)
Gail Russell
USA
Best movies:
Moonrise (1948)
The Tattered Dress (1957)
Wake of the Red Witch (1948)
Ethel Barrymore
USA
Best movies:
The Great Sinner (1949)
The Secret of Convict Lake (1951)
The Story of Three Loves (1953)
Allyn Joslyn
USA
Best movies:
Only Angels Have Wings (1939)
The Fastest Gun Alive (1956)
I Wake Up Screaming (1941)
Rex Ingram
USA
Best movies:
The Talk of the Town (1942)
The Ten Commandments (1923)
Sahara (1943)
Harry Morgan
USA
Best movies:
Inherit the Wind (1960)
Roots: The Next Generations (1979) (series)
The Glenn Miller Story (1954)
David Street
USA
Best movies:
Moonrise (1948)
Selena Royle
USA
Best movies:
The Heiress (1949)
The Harvey Girls (1946)
Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944)
Harry Carey Jr.
USA
Best movies:
Back to the Future Part III (1990)
Man of the East (1972)
Rio Bravo (1959)
Irving Bacon
USA
Best movies:
Edison, the Man (1940)
I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932)
Monsieur Verdoux (1947)
Lloyd Bridges
USA
Best movies:
Hot Shots! 2 (1993)
Hot Shots! (1991)
Roots (1977) (series)
Houseley Stevenson
UK
Best movies:
You Gotta Stay Happy (1948)
Colorado Territory (1949)
Dark Passage (1947)
Harry Cheshire
USA
Best movies:
It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
The Big Country (1958)
Lila Leeds
USA
Best movies:
Moonrise (1948)
Lady in the Lake (1947)
Robert 'Buzz' Henry
USA
Best movies:
El Dorado (1966)
Von Ryan's Express (1965)
Spencer's Mountain (1963)
Harry Lauter
USA
Best movies:
White Heat (1949)
The Big Heat (1953)
Showdown (1963)
Clem Bevans
USA
Best movies:
The Yearling (1946)
Texas (1941)
Dodge City (1939)
Charles Lane
USA
Best movies:
It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
Edison, the Man (1940)
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
Frank O'Connor
USA
Best movies:
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1938)
It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
Sunset Boulevard (1950)
Amzie Strickland
USA
Best movies:
The Roaring Twenties (1939)
The Barkleys of Broadway (1949)
Scarlet Street (1945)