Still image from the 1937 film They Won't Forget.

They Won't Forget

Directed by Mervyn Leroy

Bigotry flares when a teacher is accused of killing a small-town girl in the South.

1937 1h 35m Drama TV-G

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CAST
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Mervyn Leroy, Director
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Mervyn Leroy
Director

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Claude Rains, Andy Griffin
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Claude Rains
Andy Griffin

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Edward Norris, Robert Hale
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Edward Norris
Robert Hale

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Otto Kruger, [Michael] Gleason
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Otto Kruger
[Michael] Gleason

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Allyn Joslyn, Bill Brock
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Allyn Joslyn
Bill Brock

FULL SYNOPSIS

On Memorial Day, in a small Southern town, Mary Clay and her friend, Imogene Mayfield, go for a soda after they are dismissed for the holiday from class at the local business school. Mary discovers she has left her vanity case in her desk, and when she returns to the empty building, she is brutally murdered. Andy Griffin, the ambitious district attorney who has his eye on a Senate seat, seizes the opportunity to create a sensational case against Robert Hale, the mild-mannered Northerner who was Mary's teacher. The trial attracts Michael Gleason, a famous Northern attorney, to defend Hale, but he is unable to convince the jury of Hale's innocence despite the uncertain testimonies of the president of the business school, Carlisle P. Buxton, the school janitor, Tump Redwine, Mary's boyfriend, Joe Turner, and the barber, Jim Timberlake. Although the media accuses Griffin of fighting the Civil War in the courtroom, his tactics are successful, and Hale is sentenced to death. Gleason appeals to the governor, who knows his professional future hinges on his decision to commute Hale's sentence. The governor sacrifices his career and changes the penalty to life imprisonment, but before Hale can be safely taken out of town, he is lynched by Mary's vengeful brothers. As Griffin embarks on his race for Senator, Hale's wife Sybil demands that he accept responsiblity for her innocent husband's death, but he denies her accusations, and only briefly wonders if justice was served.


VIDEOS
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Ben Mankiewicz Intro...
Hosted Intro
Ben Mankiewicz Intro...
Hosted Intro
In Need Of Some Instruction...
Movie Clip
Original Trailer
Trailer
Ride to Glory
Movie Clip
Look at Griffin!
Movie Clip

ARTICLES
They Won't Forget (1937) is widely regarded as the film that launched the career of Lana Turner. Prior to it, the teenaged Judy Turner had only appeared as an uncredited extra in a few films. Even though she is only onscreen for a few minutes, the newly renamed Lana Turner makes a lasting impression. They Won't Forget is based on the Ward Greene novel, Death in the Deep South and Turner plays a southern schoolgirl named Mary Clay who is murdered on campus. The two main suspects are a black janitor and a northern teacher. The District Attorney (Claude Rains) decides it would be more of a challenge and a better boost for his political career to successfully convict the northern teacher, Robert Hale (Edward Norris). Local papers emphasize that the accused is from the north and before long everyone but his wife and mother believes he is guilty. So, based only on circumstantial evidence, the prejudiced jury convicts Hale and sentences him to death. The governor, however, recognizes the injustice and commutes his sentence to life in prison. But on the way to the jail, a lynch mob abducts Hale and dispenses its own form of justice. According to Variety, "The film pulls no punches, indicting lynch law and mob fury with scalpel-like precision...It pounds across a powerful story with a maximum of quiet dramatic impact." Ward Greene based his novel on the notorious Leo Frank case. In 1913, Frank was accused of murdering thirteen-year-old Mary Phagan at a pencil factory in Atlanta. Fra...

NOTES

Pre-release titles included In the Deep South, The Deep South and Death in the Deep South. A February 17, 1937 news item in Hollywood Reporter states that Dalton S. Reymond, a professor at the University of Louisiana would be technical director. His participation in the film has not been confirmed, however. Lana Turner's brief appearance in this film earned her the nickname "The Sweater Girl" and established her as a potential star. The following year, when director Mervyn LeRoy left Warner Bros., he took Turner with him to M-G-M, where she signed a long-term contract. Gloria Dickson made her film debut in the picture. The National Board of Review named the film one of the year's top ten and New York Times placed it on their ten best list. Modern sources indicate that Ward Greene's novel was based on the Leo Frank trial of 1915. Greene covered the case as a reporter for The Atlanta Journal. In 1915, Circle Film Corp. produced Thou Shalt Not Kill, which was based on the Leo Frank trial. It was directed by Hal Reid and starred Rose Coghlan and Charles Coghlan (see AFI Catalog of Feature Films, 1911-20; F1.4445). Reid also made a documentary short on the subject called Leo M. Frank, released a few months before the above film. Other films based on the Frank case include the 1935 film Lem Hawkins' Confession, directed by Oscar Micheaux and starring Clarence Brooks and Dorothy Van Engle, (see AFI Catalog of Feature Films, 1931-40; F3.2453) and the 1988 NBC miniseries, The Murder of Mary Phagan, which starred Jack Lemmon and was directed by George Stevens Jr.

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