The Harvester
Cast & Crew
Joseph Santley
Alice Brady
Russell Hardie
Ann Rutherford
Frank Craven
Cora Sue Collins
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
In a small town in Indiana in the 1890s, the domineering and ambitious Mrs. Biddle arranges a marriage between her spoiled daughter Thelma and the town's prize catch, harvester David Langston, who is wedded to the soil. David is friends with orphan Ruth Jameson and, although she is in love with him, he eventually gives in to the machinations of Mrs. Biddle and consents to marry Thelma. Meanwhile, technological advances come to town, including its first gasoline buggy, galvanic battery, and metal bathtub fitted with running water. When Mrs. Biddle tries to convince David to give up the farming life and join her husband in real estate, Mr. Biddle, hen-pecked and dissatisfied with city life, warns David against selling his farm. Meanwhile, Mrs. Biddle has Ruth's sassy younger sister Naomi, whom David adores, placed in an orphanage. When Ruth's beloved grandmother Moreland, who was against David's marriage to Thelma, becomes sick and dies, Ruth and David are drawn together, and he discovers that Mrs. Biddle put Naomi in the orphanage. Attending an orphanage board meeting, David publicly confronts Mrs. Biddle, who is a member of the board, and announces his plans to adopt Naomi himself. Outraged, Thelma hurls her engagement ring at David. Mr. Biddle, amused, declares that from now on he will be master of his house. Ruth, David and Naomi are then reunited, and David vows to stay a harvester.
Director
Joseph Santley
Cast
Alice Brady
Russell Hardie
Ann Rutherford
Frank Craven
Cora Sue Collins
Emma Dunn
Eddie Nugent
Joyce Compton
Roy Atwell
Spencer Charters
Russell Simpson
Phyllis Fraser
Fern Emmett
Burr Caruth
Lucille Ward
Harry Bowen
Buck, Dog
Grace Hale
Crew
Homer Croy
Harry Grey
Robert Lee Johnson
Terry Kellum
Reggie Lanning
Nat Levine
Joseph H. Lewis
Elizabeth Meehan
Gertrude Orr
Murray Seldeen
David Silverstein
Edward Snyder
Victor Zobel
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
According to a news item in Hollywood Reporter on January 29, 1936, Arthur Lubin had been scheduled to direct this film, although he was later replaced. According to press material in copyright records, a 5,000-word novelette of Gene Stratton-Porter's story appeared in the July 1936 issue of Screen Romances with inserts of scenes from this film. According to a news item in Daily Variety, on May 12, 1948, Windsor Pictures Corp. bought the rights to Porter's novel for a remake, but the film apparently was never made. Porter's novel was the basis of the 1927 R-C Pictures film of the same title directed by Leo Meehan and starring Orville Caldwell and Natalie Kingston (see AFI Catalog of Feature Films, 1921-30; F2.2329).
