Star of the Month: Loretta Young.

The Farmer's Daughter(1947). Cast: Loretta Young, Joseph Cotten, Ethel Barrymore, and Charles Bickford. Directed by H.C. Potter.The film won the Academy Award for Best Actress for Loretta Young and was nominated for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for Charles Bickford. In 1963, a television series based on the film was produced, starring Inger Stevens, Cathleen Nesbitt and William Windom.

Katie Holstrom , a Swedish-American, leaves the family farm to follow her dream of becoming a nurse. Barn painter Adolph Petree, offers her a ride, but robs her of her money. Katie, now needing money to support herself, goes to work as a maid in the home of Agatha Morley and her son, U.S. Representative Glenn Morley.



She impresses Agatha and Joseph Clancey, with her down-to-earth way of thinking and Glenn, with her charms. Things become complicated when the Morleys and the other leaders of their political party pick a replacement for a deceased congressman.

Knowing of his bad reputation, Katie, attends a public meeting to ask Finley, some embarrassing questions. The leaders of the opposition party are impressed and offer to back her in the coming election.

When she accepts, Katie reluctantly has to quit her job and when it looks like she has a chance of winning. Finley resorts to smearing her reputation. He pays Petree to claim Katie spent the night with him when he gave her a ride.

Heartbroken and embarrassed, Katie goes home. Glenn, goes to her home to proposes to her. After hearing the news of her son's engagement, Agatha and her butler, gets Finley drunk and tricks him into revealing that he bribed Petree, and that he has him hidden away. Will they be able to save her reputation, so she can continue on with her political career ?

The Stranger(1946). A film noir directed by Orson Welles. Cast: Welles, Edward G. Robinson, and Loretta Young. Sam Spiegel was the film's producer, and the film's musical score is by Bronisław Kaper. It is believed that this is the first film released after World War II that showed footage of concentration camps.

In 1946, Mr. Wilson of the United Nations War Crimes Commission, is hunting for Nazi war criminal,  Franz Kindler, who has assumed a new identity, Charles Rankin, and has become a school teacher in a small American town.

He is married to Mary Longstreet, daughter of Supreme Court Justice Adam Longstreet. Wilson releases Kindler's former associate Meinike, hoping the man will lead him to Kindler. Wilson follows Meinike to the town of Harper, Connecticut, but loses him before he finds Kindler.

When Meinike finds him, he begs Kindler to confess his crimes. To keep his identity a secret Kindler strangles Meinike. Eventually, Wilson realizes that Rankin is Kindler, but.. he has no proof.

Only Mrs. Rankin knows that Meinike came to meet her husband. Now, Rankin must kill her to keep her quiet.

Things become complicated for Rankin when Red, the family dog, discovers Meinike's body. To protect his secret, Rankin poisons Red.

Mrs. Rankin, begins to suspect her husband, but cant wrap her mind around the truth. Mr. Wilson shows her graphic footage of Nazi concentration camps, and explains how Kindler/Rankin developed the idea of genocide. She keeps quiet until Mary discovers Rankin in planning on killing her.

 

Rachel And The Stranger (1948). A western. Cast: Loretta Young, William Holden and Robert Mitchum. The Norman Foster-helmed film was one of the few to address the role of women in the pioneer west, as well as portray early America's servant trade. It was based on the Howard Fast short story "Rachel". Despite its low budget, the film became RKO's most successful film that year, making over $350,000.

In colonial America, David Harvey, a recent widower living in the wilderness, decides that his son Davey, needs a woman around to help raise him. He goes to the nearest settlement and asks Parson Jackson to help him .

David gets talked into buying a bonds woman named Rachel and marrying her. Rachel serves more as a servant than a wife and Davey resents what he sees as an attempt to replace his dead mother Susan.

Jim Fairways, a family friend (and former suitor of Susan's), visits and falls in love with Rachel. When he offers to buy her, David discovers he is love with her.

Please click here to view past Rachel and the Stranger movie review.

Along Came Jones (1945). A Western/comedy. Cast: Gary Cooper, Loretta Young, William Demarest, and Dan Duryea. The movie was adapted by Nunnally Johnson from the novel Useless Cowboy by Alan Le May. Directed by Stuart Heisler. The film's ironic title probably inspired the popular 1960s Coasters song "Along Came Jones" written by Leiber and Stoller; songwriter Mike Stoller had studied orchestration under Arthur Lange, the composer of the film's score. Much of the movie was filmed at the Iverson Movie Ranch in Chatsworth, Calif. This was the only film produced by Cooper during his long movie career, and he had roots at Iverson, having worked there in, The Lives of a Bengal Lancer (1935) and other productions. Cooper had a Western town built at the movie ranch for Along Came Jones, which was then used in many other productions during the next 10-plus years and became a fixture in B-Westerns in particular.

Easygoing Melody Jones and his friend George Fury, travel into town. Jones, is mistaken for the wanted bandit Monte Jarrad, which causes him plenty of trouble.

The real Jarrad, is hiding out in the home of, Cherry de Longpre. At first, she tries to use Melody, to tick the townsfolk, into thinking that he is the real Jarrad, but.. as it goes... they fall for each other. Well, it is Gary Copper after all.

Please click here to view past Along Came Jones movie reviews.

Key To The City (1950). A romantic/comedy. Cast: Clark Gable and Loretta Young. This was the second (and final) time that Gable and Young performed together in a film, the first being in the film, Call of the Wild(1935). The film was the final performance by character actor Frank Morgan, who died before the film was released.

Mayor Steve Fisk, is at a convention in San Francisco, he mistakes Clarissa Standish, the mayor of Wenonah, Maine, for a "balloon dancer". Steve feels that Clarissa might be too refined a woman for him, but he wants to get to know her better.

He needs to be careful, because a crooked city councilman would love to have something to use against Steve back home. Clarissa, is arrested twice, first after a brawl in a Chinatown restaurant, then on their way to a costume party.

A photographer takes a picture of Clarissa making it look like she's arrested for public drunkenness. She doesn't think it funny, but her uncle, Judge Standish, is happy thinking that she is finally having some fun.

The real balloon dancer, Sheila, shows up, causing Clarissa to think that Steve's going to see her. And she's angry when Steve disappears, unaware that he had to hurry home on business. Steve, is in love with her and can't wait to give her with the key to his city and his heart.

Please click here to read past Key to the City movie review.

Cause For Alarm (1951). A film noir/suspense. Directed by Tay Garnett (The Postman Always Rings Twice). Cast: Loretta Young and Barry Sullivan.

Ellen narrates the tale of how she was taking care of her bedridden husband George Z. Jones when he suddenly dropped dead:

Ellen first meets George in a naval hospital during World War II while she was dating his best friend, Lieutenant Ranney Grahame, a military doctor who had little time for her.

George was a pilot, when Ellen fell in love with him and they soon married and moved to Los Angeles.

George, is now confined to his bed with a bad heart and Ellen, spends most her time caring for him. George's doctor is their old friend Ranney, with whom George thinks his wife is having an affair with. Ranney, thinks George may need psychological help.

George has written a letter to the district attorney in which he claims his wife and best friend are killing him with overdoses of heart medicine.

A little neighbor boy dressed as a cowboy becomes friends with Ellen, she gives him cookies. He hands her a toy television set and asks Ellen to give it to George.

George, asks her to mail a letter for him, thinking a letter has something to do with insurance, Ellen gives it to the postman, who sees George in the upstairs window.

When Ellen goes up to find out why he has gotten out of bed, George lets her know what the letter says and pulls a gun and is about to kill her when he drops dead.

Ellen panics over the letter and running from the house, she chases down the postman, to who she gave the letter, but.. he won't give it back to her without talking to George first. The postman says she can ask the supervisor at the downtown post office, who has more authority.

When she gets back to the house, she finds George's Aunt Clara walking up the stairs to see George and stops her. Clara, tries to go up the stairs again but, Ellen tells her, George told her not to let his aunt see him. Clara leaves in a huff.

Ellen goes back up to the bedroom to change her clothes and sees the gun still in George's hand, she grabs the gun from his hand, it fires. Leaveing the house, a notary rings the doorbell, telling her he has an appointment with George to go over some legal papers. She tells him that George is too sick to see anyone.

Ellen, drives to the post office to see the supervisor, who gives her a form for George to sign, but changes his mind, because of Ellen's odd behavior, then tells her he is going to allow the letter to be delivered.

After she returns to the house, Ranney shows up to check on George, by this time Ellen, has become hysterical. Ranney, tells her to be calm and goes up to the bedroom.

Showing no emotion for George, sees the bullet hole in the floor, finds the gun in a dresser drawer, moves George's body in the bed and pulls down the window shade.

Back downstairs with Ellen, she tells him what happened, saying "I did everything wrong, just like he said I would." The doorbell rings. She thinks the police have come to arrest her. Ranney tells Ellen, to answer the door.

When she does, it is the postman, returning the letter for insufficient postage. Ranney, rips up the letter and burns it in an ashtray along with a matchbook with the embossed names George and Ellen.

The Unguarded Hour(1936). Cast: Loretta Young and Franchot Tone. Director, Sam Wood. The prosecutor in a murder trial is unaware that his wife is involved.