Week Ninety-Five
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"High, Wide and Handsome" 1939 Wedding scene, Tommy on right |
MOVIE NAME: HIGH, WIDE AND HANDSOME
STUDIO: PARAMOUNT PICTURES INC.
PRESIDENT: ADOLPH ZUKOR
PRODUCER: ARTHUR HORNBLOW
DIRECTOR: ROUBEN MAMOULIAN
DATE: 1937
TYPE: MUSICAL, HISTORICAL
CAST:
IRENE DUNNE as Sally Watterson , RANDOLPH SCOTT as Peter Cortlandt ,DOROTHY LAMOUR as Molly, ELIZABETH PATTERSON as Grandma Cortlandt , RAYMOND WALBURN as Doc Watterson , CHARLES BICKFORD as Red Scanlon, AKIM TAMIROFF as Joe Varese BEN BLUE as Zeke, WILLIAM FRAWLEY as Mac, TOMMY BUPP, as a boy
SONGS:"High, Wide and Handsome," "The Folks Who Live on the Hill," "Can I Forget You?", "The things I Want", "Allegheny Al", and " Will You Marry Me Tomorrow, Maria?"
SOURCE: A F I, Catalog of Feature Films 1931-1940
STORY: In 1859, Titusville, Pennsylvania, Doc Watterson's traveling medicine show burns down, and Grandma Cortlandt takes him and his daughter Sally in to work on her farm with her grandson Peter. Peter, meanwhile, drills for rock oil, dreaming of supplying the world with affordable oil. Sally and Peter soon fall in love, and he promises to build her a house on a hill among the apple blossoms. He continues to drill until, during their wedding reception, he strikes oil and starts an oil boom on farms across the state. Soon, however, railroad magnate Walt Brennan, tries to force the farmers to sell, by raising the freight rates on his railroad. Peter works long hours to devise a scheme to defeat his foe and finally invents a pipeline. Brennan's friends bring gambling and prostitution to the small town, enraging the community. Brennan bids on a twenty-mile stretch of land that Peter needs for his pipeline, which is owned by saloon owner Joe Varese. Varses's price is Cortlandt Hill, where Sally's house is to be built. Meanwhile, Sally befriends saloon singer Molly, who has been ostracized by the church elders, and goes to Varses's bar to help her audition. Peter is furious when he sees Sally performing with Molly. Sally is also enraged when she learns that Peter has given her hilltop land to Varese. Tired of sitting home waiting for Peter, Sally runs away with Bower's Carnival with her father. Peter and the farmers work though the winter. When he has only two days to complete three miles of pipeline, Brennan buys the bank that holds the mortgage on the refinery and threatens to pull the mortgage if the refinery grants Peter more time. Sally hears of Peter's trouble and returns to Titusville. As a few loyal men work to get the pipeline over a hill, Brennan's men come to destroy it, but Sally's circus friends arrive with elephants in time to defeat Brennan and complete the pipeline. As the circus leaves Sally and Peter are reconciled.
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