Gentle Julia
Cast & Crew
John Blystone
Jane Withers
Tom Brown
Marsha Hunt
Jackie Searl
Francis Ford
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
After a Sunday morning church service in the small town of Atwater in the early years of the century, many of the unmarried male attendees gather around Julia Atwater, the flirtatious daughter of the town's banker. The children of the town laugh at Julia's niece Florence, whose mischievous cousin Herbert pinned her dress up in back as they both sang in the choir. Albert Crum, a young man whose manner and talk suggest a wealthy, upper-class upbringing, asks Julia to go riding with him in his car, while Florence, who dislikes Crum because he called her "funny face," encourages Noble Dill, a bashful, bumbling newspaperman, to court Julia. Rather than being wealthy, Crum actually owes $3,000 to a man who has followed him from New York. When he explains to the man his plan to marry Julia, the richest girl in town, Crum gets a two-week reprieve. Julia is impressed by Crum's worldliness and is critical of Noble's lack of ambition. Acting on Florence's advice, Noble, to win Julia's favor, takes a passerby's umbrella during a rainstorm and tries to give it to Julia's crotchety grandfather, who is walking by. The passerby then starts a scuffle and calls Grandpa a thief. After Grandpa threatens to kill Noble if he catches him, Julia sends a note to Noble, which encourages him, and Noble responds by sending Julia a dog as a present. Although Grandpa is angered by the present at first, the dog soon wins him over. After Julia invites Noble to a party in honor of Crum, Noble threatens to leave town, maybe, he says, to go to China, but Julia coyly asks him not to, and then, when a lit cigarette he has placed in his pocket, because Grandpa does not allow smoking, burns his fingers, Julia kisses them. At the party, Crum, after seeing that the man to whom he owes money is watching, proposes to Julia. While she puts him off, saying that she has to be sure first, Florence overhears and goes to Herbert's "laboratory," where he keeps jars of insects. She lets loose lizards and a swarm of bees, and causes pandemonium, during which Crum calls Noble a scoundrel and Noble hits him. Later, Grandpa learns that Florence does not like Crum and volunteers to check up on him during his upcoming trip to New York. After overhearing Crum courting Julia, Noble tells Florence that he thinks Crum is a phony. Florence then blackmails Herbert and his friend, Henry Rooter, who publish their own children's newspaper, into letting her print Noble's accusation as fact. Angered and humiliated when she reads Noble's public denunciation, Julia leaves with Crum to get married by a preacher in the country. Grandpa then returns with evidence that Crum is an impostor, and all the townspeople, in their vintage automobiles, surreys and shays, follow Florence and Noble, who chase the couple in a fish wagon. They interrupt the ceremony, and while Florence holds Crum back, Julia accepts Noble's proposal and they are married.
Director
John Blystone
Cast
Jane Withers
Tom Brown
Marsha Hunt
Jackie Searl
Francis Ford
George Meeker
Maurice Murphy
Harry Holman
Myra Marsh
Hattie Mcdaniel
Jackie Hughes
Eddie Buzard
Frank Sully
Niles Welch
Frederick Lee
Florence Wix
Tom Ricketts
Mary Carr
Jane Keckley
Cyril Ring
Mary Alden
Grace Goodall
John Dilson
Landers Stevens
Marcia Mae Jones
Roger Gray
Harvey Clark
Arthur Hoyt
Maidel Turner
Edwin Stanley
Hilda Vaughn
Ann Bupp
Crew
Fred Allen
Ernest R. Ball
Jasper Blystone
Alfred Bruzlin
Duncan Cramer
Thomas Hastings
Albert Hogsett
Samuel Kaylin
Alberto Luza
George A. Minor
Ernest Palmer
Augustus Montague Toplady
Lamar Trotti
Sol M. Wurtzel
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The film is introduced in the opening credits as "Booth Tarkington's Gentle Julia." Variety commented that in the film, the emphasis was shifted from the novel to make the kid sister of Julia, who was played by Jane Withers, the central character. According to the Twentieth Century-Fox Records of the Legal Department at the UCLA Theater Arts Library, Charles Grayson, Arthur T. Horman and Sonya Levien worked on script material at various times for this film; however, as the legal records indicate that the work of Lamar Trotti, who received sole screen credit for writing, was based solely on the novel, it is doubtful that any of Grayson's, Horman's or Levien's work was included in the final film. In Hollywood Reporter production charts, Harry Jackson is listed as photographer and Astrid Allwyn as a cast member, but their participation in the final film has not been confirmed. In 1922, Fox produced another film based on the same source, which was directed by Rowland V. Lee and starred Bessie Love, Harold Goodwin and Frank Elliott (see AFI Catalog of Feature Films, 1921-30; F2.2036).
