Mountain Justice

Plot

In this depressing drama, even though she is an adult, the eldest daughter of a hillbilly clan headed by a brutal patriarch still must endure his vicious beatings. Finally her mother and other friends counsel her to leave the hills. She does and ends up in New York where she enrolls in nursing classes. While studying, she also meets the dashing young attorney who helped convict her father of a shooting several months before. After graduating, she returns home to assist a doctor in a free clinic. Unfortunately, her father will not let her back into the family home, which causes her no pain at all. When the ruthless father begins attempting to sell off her younger sister as a child bride, the nurse comes to her aide. A fight ensues between father and daughter culminating in the father's accidental death. Her beau defends her in court, but she is sentenced to 25 years in prison anyway. Unfortunately, the locals are angered by the killing and decide to get their own revenge and lynch her. Fortunately, the lawyer saves her and bundles her on a plane and gets her away from there. This film is adapted from a true story. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Review

Mountain Justice is a rather florid, lurid backwoods melodrama, and it has some plot holes you could drive a mess of hogs through, but it still manages to be decent entertainment. Michael Curtiz is the director, and that's a good clue as to why Justice works better than it really has any right to. Curtiz made tons of movies, and even though this is one of his earlier and lesser ones, it still demonstrates that he had an innate flair for the cinema. There's little flourish to his work here; it's mostly just about telling the story and doing so in as clear a manner as possible. And when clarity would get in the way, he throws in little distractions to keep us from paying too much attention to how clumsy the screenplay has become. Curtiz is also fortunate to have Josephine Hutchinson playing the lead role. Never a real star, Hutchinson was both beautiful and talented, and she navigates this tricky role quite adeptly, mining the emotion as called for without falling into excess. Robert H. Borrat is quite believable as the monster of a father, and Guy Kibbee and especially Margaret Hamilton do very well in supporting roles. The screenplay is excessive and at times ridiculous, with a total disregard for the realities of law and courtroom procedure, but Curtiz, Hutchinson and company help make up for that. ~ Craig Butler, Rovi

Cast

• Josephine Hutchinson - Ruth Harkins
• George Brent - Paul Cameron
• Guy Kibbee - Dr. Barnard
• Mona Barrie - Evelyn Wayne
• Robert H. Barrat - Jeff Harkins

Margaret Hamilton - Phoebe; Robert McWade - Horace Bamber; Fuzzy Knight - Clem Biggers; Edward Pawley - Tod Miller; Elizabeth Risdon - Meg Harkins; Marcia Mae Jones - Bethy Harkins; Granville Bates - Judge Crawley; Russell Simpson - Turnbull; Sibyl Harris - Mrs. Turnbull; Guy Wilkerson - Asaph Anderson; Arthur Ayleswofth - Justice of the Peace; Virginia Brissac - Miss Hughes; Charles "Heinie" Conklin - Jury Foreman; Harry Davenport - Printer; Claire Du Brey - Young Woman; Herbert Heywood - Jury Foreman; Earl Hodgins - Vendor; Gertrude W. Hoffman - Granny Burnside; Dennis Moore - Airplane Pilot; Walter Soderling - Sheriff Willis; Carl Stockdale - Stout; Jim Toney - Makeup Man; Minerva Urecal - Ella Crippen; Henry Hall - Henniger

Credit

Max Parker - Art Director, Milo Anderson - Costume Designer, Michael Curtiz - Director, George J. Amy - Editor, Leo F. Forbstein - Musical Direction/Supervision, Ernest Haller - Cinematographer, Norman Reilly Raine - Screenwriter, Luci Ward - Screenwriter

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