A Girl of the Limberlost
Cast & Crew
Christy Cabanne
Louise Dresser
Ralph Morgan
Marian Marsh
Henry B. Walthall
Edward Nugent
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
While returning home from a illicit tryst, Frank Comstock is sucked into the swamp near his Indiana home and cries to his pregnant wife Katherine for help. Racked with labor pains, Katherine is unable to save her husband and bears her child Elnora alone. Because she feels that Elnora is responsible for Frank's death, Katherine shows only hatred for her growing daughter. The lonely Elnora is befriended by her aunt and uncle, Wesley and Margaret Sinton, who shower her with affection and educate her about swamp life. Against Katherine's wishes, Elnora enrolls in a high school and, to pay for her tuition and clothes, sells her rare butterfly collection to Mrs. Parker, also known as the "The Bird Woman." All through high school, Elnora is opposed by Katherine, who fails to relent from her disparaging ways even when Phillip Ammon, the son of the village doctor, takes a romantic interest in Elnora. After graduation, Elnora continues to rely on the Sintons for support. However, when Elnora's meager savings for college are stolen by a youth from across the swamps, Katherine takes it upon herself to retrieve the money. While tracking the youth, Katherine meets up with her husband's former lover and finally learns the truth of his infidelity. Phillip meanwhile is suprised by the arrival of his fiancée, Edith Carr. When Phillip sees Edith's jealousy of Elnora, he realizes his love for the village girl and breaks with Edith. In the end, Katherine reconciles with Elnora, and Phillip and Elnora are united.
Director
Christy Cabanne
Cast
Louise Dresser
Ralph Morgan
Marian Marsh
Henry B. Walthall
Edward Nugent
Gigi Parrish
Helen Jerome Eddy
Betty Blythe
Barbara Bedford
Robert Ellis
Tommy Bupp
Ann Bupp
Crew
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
This film was also reviewed as The Girl of the Limberlost and Girl of the Limberlost. A pre-production Film Daily news item states that Monogram "dickered" for Margaret Sullavan for the role of Elnora. Other Hollywood Reporter news items indicate that Marian Marsh was selected to play "Elnora" after an extensive search. According to publicity items in the copyright records, sixty different interior sets as well as exterior "swamp" sets, which required six weeks of construction, were built for this production, which was shot in part at the Monogram Ranch in Placerita Canyon, Newhall, CA. A Hollywood Reporter pre-release news item stated that before Monogram edited the film to nine reels, it was first cut from fourteen reels to twelve. Prior to the final edit, Monogram debated whether to keep the film at twelve reels and release it as a "special." Gene Stratton-Porter's novel was first produced in 1924 by First National Pictures. John Francis Dillon directed Ann Harding and James Rennie in this silent version (see AFI Catalog of Feature Films, 1921-30; F2.2099). Monogram made another version of the story in 1938 as Romance of the Limberlost . In 1945 Columbia made a third version of the novel, directed by Melebor Ferrar and starring Ruth Nelson and Dorinda Clifton.
