By Richard Harland Smith
Mountain Justice
Brief Synopsis
A young lawyer defends a hillbilly girl who killed her father in self defense.
Cast & Crew
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Michael Curtiz
Director
Josephine Hutchinson
Ruth Harkins
George Brent
Paul Cameron
Guy Kibbee
Dr. [John] Barnard
Mona Barrie
Evelyn Wayne
Robert Barratt
Jeff Harkins
Film Details
Genre
Drama
Release Date
Apr
24,
1937
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.
Distribution Company
Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.
Country
United States
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 22m
Sound
Mono
Color
Black and White
Theatrical Aspect Ratio
1.37 : 1
Film Length
7,567ft
(10 reels)
Synopsis
Ruth Harkins wants to start a clinic, which would be headed by Dr. John Barnard, to benefit the mountain community where she grew up. She meets only ignorance and prejudice from the community and from her father, Jeff Harkins, who forbids her to assist Barnard. At a traveling carnival, Ruth meets Paul Cameron, a lawyer from New York, who is in the mountains to try Ruth's father for killing an outsider. At Jeff's trial, Ruth is one of the witnesses and her limited and reluctant testimony helps convict him. Although he is given a very light sentence, Ruth is accused of disloyalty and of choosing a lover over her father. Months later, Jeff is released from prison a day early, and arrives home to find that Ruth has sold an acre of land that she owned and has used the money to dress up the Harkins' home. He destroys all her efforts, demanding the rest of the money be given to him. Paul returns to the mountains to tell Ruth of his love for her and to beg her to come with him to New York. She refuses, still determined to build the clinic before she allows herself any personal pleasure. Learning of Paul's visit, Jeff insists that Ruth marry a man of his choice and whips her when she resists. That night, her mother takes her to Barnard's house. He and his long-time fiancée Phoebe Lamb give Ruth the money to complete her nursing studies in New York. Although she does not tell Paul of her presence in the city, he discovers her and convinces her to go out to dinner with him. Ruth again refuses to marry him until she has started her clinic. Evelyn Wayne, one of Ruth's fellow students, agrees to join her in the effort, and even puts up the money. The clinics spread, and are supported by the women of the community, who are determined to get good care for their children even if they have to go behind their husbands' backs. Ruth's father will not forgive her for her defiance and forbids her to see her mother and sister Bethie. Facing a forced marriage, fourteen-year-old Bethie runs away to Ruth's, but is followed by her father. Jeff again tries to whip Ruth, and while defending herself, she kills him. Paul rushes to her defense, presenting evidence that Jeff actually died of heart failure, not from the blows that Ruth inflicted on his head. Nonetheless, she is found guilty and sentenced to life in prison. The mountain crowd, outraged by what they perceive as her disrespect, pushes for lynching. Using the mob as a cover, Ruth's friends, including the people whose children she helped save, remove her from prison. She and Paul fly to another state, where the governor commutes her sentence.
Director
Michael Curtiz
Director
Cast
Josephine Hutchinson
Ruth Harkins
George Brent
Paul Cameron
Guy Kibbee
Dr. [John] Barnard
Mona Barrie
Evelyn Wayne
Robert Barratt
Jeff Harkins
Margaret Hamilton
Phoebe Lamb
Robert Mcwade
Horace Bamber
Fuzzy Knight
Clem Biggars
Edward Pawley
Tad Miller
Elizabeth Risdon
Meg Harkins
Granville Bates
Judge Crawley
Russell Simpson
Mr. Turnbull
Sybil Harris
Mrs. Turnbull
Guy Wilkerson
Asaph Anderson
Marcia Mae Jones
Bethie Harkins
Crew
George Amy
Film Editor
Milo Anderson
Gowns
Henry Blanke
Associate Producer
Lou Edelman
Producer
Leo F. Forbstein
Music Director
Mrs. Elizabeth Hearst
Technical Advisor
Max Parker
Art Director
Norman Reilly Raine
Original Screenplay
Irving Rapper
Dialogue Director
Sherry Shourds
Assistant Director
Luci Ward
Original Screenplay
Jack L. Warner
Executive Producer
Film Details
Genre
Drama
Release Date
Apr
24,
1937
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.
Distribution Company
Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.
Country
United States
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 22m
Sound
Mono
Color
Black and White
Theatrical Aspect Ratio
1.37 : 1
Film Length
7,567ft
(10 reels)
Articles
Mountain Justice
The November 1935 murder trial of 21 year-old Wise County, Virginia schoolteacher Edith Maxwell, who would serve four years in prison for slaying her blacksmith father in a purported act of self-defense, was tailor-made for Warner Brothers, a studio whose stock-in-trade was fact-based motion pictures "torn from the headlines." Originally adapted as a vehicle for Bette Davis, Mountain Justice (1937) was moved farther from the facts by rewrite man Norman Reilly Raine; to discourage the possibility of a libel suit, the pivotal character (renamed "Ruth Harkins") was made a nurse rather than a teacher. When Warners declared Davis too upmarket to play an Appalachian (the studio plugged her instead into Lloyd Bacon's Marked Woman, which also ends in a dramatic trial), stage actress Josephine Hutchinson was cast in her stead. George Brent was brought onboard to play a big city lawyer drawn to the case and the supporting cast was filled out by Margaret Hamilton, Guy Kibbee, Fuzzy Knight, and Robert Barrat (as Ruth Harkins' whip-wielding father). Director Michael Curtiz squeezes the drama for its weight in superstition and xenophobia while pushing the narrative towards a climactic mob scene that puts Mountain Justice in the company of Fritz Lang's Fury (1936) and Mervyn LeRoy's They Won't Forget (1937). 20th Century Fox rushed into production their own spin on the Maxwell case, Lewis Seiler's Career Woman (1936), which beat Mountain Justice into cinemas by four months.
By Richard Harland Smith
By Richard Harland Smith
Mountain Justice
The November 1935 murder trial of 21 year-old Wise County, Virginia schoolteacher Edith Maxwell, who would serve four years in prison for slaying her blacksmith father in a purported act of self-defense, was tailor-made for Warner Brothers, a studio whose stock-in-trade was fact-based motion pictures "torn from the headlines." Originally adapted as a vehicle for Bette Davis, Mountain Justice (1937) was moved farther from the facts by rewrite man Norman Reilly Raine; to discourage the possibility of a libel suit, the pivotal character (renamed "Ruth Harkins") was made a nurse rather than a teacher. When Warners declared Davis too upmarket to play an Appalachian (the studio plugged her instead into Lloyd Bacon's Marked Woman, which also ends in a dramatic trial), stage actress Josephine Hutchinson was cast in her stead. George Brent was brought onboard to play a big city lawyer drawn to the case and the supporting cast was filled out by Margaret Hamilton, Guy Kibbee, Fuzzy Knight, and Robert Barrat (as Ruth Harkins' whip-wielding father). Director Michael Curtiz squeezes the drama for its weight in superstition and xenophobia while pushing the narrative towards a climactic mob scene that puts Mountain Justice in the company of Fritz Lang's Fury (1936) and Mervyn LeRoy's They Won't Forget (1937). 20th Century Fox rushed into production their own spin on the Maxwell case, Lewis Seiler's Career Woman (1936), which beat Mountain Justice into cinemas by four months.
By Richard Harland Smith
Quotes
Trivia
Contemporary sources suggest the film was based on a real murder case where a woman killed her own father.
Notes
Elizabeth Hearst, who is credited as technical advisor, was a Kentucky schoolteacher. Contemporary sources suggest that the film was drawn from the real-life murder case in which a woman named Edith Maxwell killed her own father. According to Film Daily, Bette Davis was assigned to the film.
