Home Town Story 1951
cast:
Jeffrey Lynn .... Blake Washburn
Donald Crisp .... John MacFarland
Marjorie Reynolds .... Janice Hunt
Alan Hale Jr. .... Slim Haskins
Marilyn Monroe .... Iris Martin
Barbara Brown .... Mrs. Washburn
Melinda Plowman .... Katie Washburn
Renny McEvoy .... Leo, the Taxi Driver
Glenn Tryon .... Ken Kenlock
Byron Foulger .... Berny Miles
Griff Barnett .... Uncle Cliff Washburn
Virginia Campbell .... Phoebe Hartman
Harry Harvey .... Andy Butterworth
Nelson Leigh .... Dr. Johnson
Speck Noblitt .... Motorcycle officer
1951 / 61 minutes / Black and white MGM
Director: Arthur Pierson
Producer: Arthur Pierson
Screenplay: Arthur Pierson
Cinematographer: Lucien Andriot
Home Town Story was commissioned as a pro-Big Business tract by General Motors. The story revolves around Blake Washburn, a mildly leftist newspaperman. Returning to his home town, Washburn turns his journalistic vitriol upon the local business interests. Only after his kid sister Katie, trapped in a cave-in, is rescued by locally produced technology, does Washburn realize the value of the capitalistic system. Home Town Story was fitfully distributed by MGM, then lapsed into obscurity. It might have remained there had it not been for the presence of a young Marilyn Monroe in a supporting part.
