By Frank Miller
Way Back Home
Brief Synopsis
A New England preacher shelters a young boy from his alcoholic father.
Cast & Crew
Read More
William Seiter
Director
Phillips H. Lord
Seth Parker
Effie L. Palmer
Mother Parker
Frank Albertson
David Clark
Bette Davis
Mary Lucy [Duffy]
Frankie Darro
Robbie [Parker]
Film Details
Also Known As
Other People's Business
Genre
Drama
Release Date
Nov
13,
1931
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.
Distribution Company
RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.
Country
United States
Location
Santa Cruz, California, United States
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 21m
Sound
Mono
Color
Black and White
Theatrical Aspect Ratio
1.37 : 1
Film Length
9 reels
Synopsis
In the village of Jonesport, Maine, farmers Seth and Mother Parker care for their foster son Robbie, while farm hand David Clark, the son of "Runaway" Rose, secretly courts his employer's daughter, Mary Lucy Duffy. Because Rose had eloped with a stranger years before and had returned alone to Jonesport with a baby, the townspeople ostracize her, and Mary Lucy's father, Wobbling Duffy, forbids his daughter from seeing David. Although David, a graduate of agricultural school, is fired by Duffy for chatting with Mary Lucy, he nevertheless agrees to meet her at a barn dance that night. At the same time, Duffy's friend, drunken ruffian Rufe Turner, shows up in Jonesport looking for Robbie, the son he had abandoned as a baby. After Seth cleverly prevents Duffy from attacking Mary Lucy at the dance, the humiliated farmer threatens his daughter and forces her out of his home. Mary Lucy then moves in with the Parkers, and her blossoming romance with David becomes the main topic of conversation for the local gossips. Seth and Mother care for and counsel Mary Lucy and also protect Robbie from Turner, who greedily demands his son's return. During a taffy-pulling party at the Parkers', Seth advises Mary Lucy and David, who are about to elope to Bangor, to stay in Jonesport for a few more days, then gives them money for a proper wedding. Later that night, Turner, who had been chased off by Seth at gunpoint, sneaks into Robbie's room and kidnaps him. When Seth discovers Turner's deed, he takes off in his buggy and, with help from the family Bible, catches and knocks out Turner as he is about to flee with Robbie on a train. Because Seth never had legally adopted Robbie, the boy is placed in a Bangor orphanage, pending a legal decision. While waiting for the court's verdict, Seth lectures the townspeople on the subject of tolerance and encourages them to accept Rose and her newly married son into their hearts. Moved by Seth's words, the townspeople embrace the newlyweds and Rose, just as Robbie returns from Bangor as Seth's legal heir.
Director
William Seiter
Director
Cast
Phillips H. Lord
Seth Parker
Effie L. Palmer
Mother Parker
Frank Albertson
David Clark
Bette Davis
Mary Lucy [Duffy]
Frankie Darro
Robbie [Parker]
Dorothy Peterson
["Runaway"] Rose Clark
Stanley Fields
Rufe Turner
Oscar Apfel
Wobbling Duffy
Sophia M. Lord
Lizzie [Perkins]
Bennett Kilpack
Cephus [Perkins]
Raymond Hunter
Captain Bang
Wade Boteler
Income tax man
Crew
Willard Barth
Assistant Camera
Pandro S. Berman
Supervisor
Charles Burke
Assistant Camera
George Diskant
Assistant Camera
J. Roy Hunt
Photography
William Lebaron
Producer
Gaston Longet
Still Photographer
Hugh Mcdowell Jr.
Recording
Jane Murfin
Story and Screenplay
Sam Nelson
Assistant Director
Edwin Pyle
Camera Operator
Max Rée
Costumes
Max Rée
Scenery
Arthur Roberts
Film Editor
Frank Rodman
Camera Operator
Harry Wild
Camera Operator
Film Details
Also Known As
Other People's Business
Genre
Drama
Release Date
Nov
13,
1931
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.
Distribution Company
RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.
Country
United States
Location
Santa Cruz, California, United States
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 21m
Sound
Mono
Color
Black and White
Theatrical Aspect Ratio
1.37 : 1
Film Length
9 reels
Articles
Way Back Home -
When she made her fourth film, there was still no such thing as a Bette Davis picture. So, rather than playing the kind of feverishly self-determined woman that would become her trademark, she played a simple farm girl in love with a young man (Frank Albertson) whose mother is considered the town's fallen woman. That's just one of the plots in this adaptation of Phillips Lord's popular radio series Sunday Evening at Seth Parker's. Lord had parlayed his simple stories of an old New England preacher (played by Lord while still in his twenties) into a radio series, books and a movie. The film's real focus was on Lord's adopted son (Frankie Darro), whose abusive father wants the child back and at one point even threatens Davis. RKO invested a surprisingly high sum for the time, $400,000, in hopes that Lord's devoted radio audience would follow him into theatres. They even put Max Steiner, later one of Davis's major collaborators, on the film's score and turned the cinematography over to J. Roy Hunt, the first cameraman to take time to photograph the future star well. Davis loved the experience, made on loan from Universal, but returned to her home studio to discover she'd been fired.
By Frank Miller
By Frank Miller
Way Back Home -
When she made her fourth film, there was still no such thing as a Bette Davis picture. So, rather than playing the kind of feverishly self-determined woman that would become her trademark, she played a simple farm girl in love with a young man (Frank Albertson) whose mother is considered the town's fallen woman. That's just one of the plots in this adaptation of Phillips Lord's popular radio series Sunday Evening at Seth Parker's. Lord had parlayed his simple stories of an old New England preacher (played by Lord while still in his twenties) into a radio series, books and a movie. The film's real focus was on Lord's adopted son (Frankie Darro), whose abusive father wants the child back and at one point even threatens Davis. RKO invested a surprisingly high sum for the time, $400,000, in hopes that Lord's devoted radio audience would follow him into theatres. They even put Max Steiner, later one of Davis's major collaborators, on the film's score and turned the cinematography over to J. Roy Hunt, the first cameraman to take time to photograph the future star well. Davis loved the experience, made on loan from Universal, but returned to her home studio to discover she'd been fired.
By Frank Miller
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The working title for this film was Other People's Business. Motion Picture Herald reviewed the film under that title. The name "Seth Parker" appears above the movie's title. The character of "Seth Parker" was created by Phillips H. Lord, whose Maine sketches featuring "Seth and Mother Parker" and "Lizzie and Cephus Perkins," were first popularized on the radio. This is the first film in which Lord appeared as "Seth Parker." Lord also appeared in the 1935 Arcturus Pictures film Obeah!, in which his character was called "the adventurer." "Seth Parker" was the name of his yacht in that film. Phillips Lord was married to Sophia Lord, who also played "Lizzie Perkins" on the radio, at the time of this production. In an RKO inter-office memorandum from the "Critic Department," the box office potential of this story was discussed at length. The unidentified script reader complained about the datedness of the plot, stating that "a story of this type should never take itself seriously, for the day when pictures like The Old Homestead [a 1915 Famous Players film based on a well-known New England vaudeville character] would grip the attention of a movie audience is lost forever." The reader mentioned the financial failure of a 1930 RKO Amos 'n' Andy movie, Check and Double Check, as proof that popular radio stars do not always make popular film stars. In addition, the reader pointed out that the majority of "Seth Parker's" fans were "those people who are interested in the singing of hymns, old folk songs, and a very simple brand of humor" and that the "average young person, between the ages of fifteen and thirty, who form a very large percentage of the movie audiences, do not listen to the broadcast." Although a July 1931 Hollywood Reporter news item announced Eric Linden as the lead in the picture, that actor did not appear in the film. According to an August Film Daily news item, scenes for the production were to be shot in Santa Cruz, CA. The Motion Picture Herald reviewer complimented Carl Dreher, RKO sound department chief, for his contribution to this film. The exact nature of Dreher's work on this particular production is not known, however. RKO borrowed Frank Albertson from Fox and Bette Davis from Universal. According to modern sources, Davis was paid $300 per week for three weeks of shooting on the picture.
