Kleinstadtmädel

Small Town Girl (1936)

*** (out of 4)

Charming Cinderella type story about a poor farm girl (Janet Gaynor) who goes out with a rich playboy (Robert Taylor) and after getting drunk the two are married. When they sober up they realize the mistake they've made but agree to stay married for six months so that the scandal won't ruin his career. Director Wellman handles the rather sappy story very well and the two stars really shine, which is the main reason this film works. Gaynor is very charming here and quite believable as the poor girl who gets caught up in something she didn't expect. Taylor is equally impressive and is able to be charming yet a jerk at the same time. The strong supporting cast includes Lewis Stone, Binnie Barnes, Andy Devine and James Stewart. The film runs a tad bit too long and is quite predictable but there's no denying the charm between the cast.

An interesting film with a playful seduction, which it does everything to avoid throughout, between a rich, young Boston doctor (Robert Taylor) from an old money family who's out carousing around in his convertible roadster after the "Big" Harvard-Yale game and by chance picks up a dissatisfied "small town girl" (Janet Gaynor) who's out aimlessly walking the streets in her little town. The socio-economic strata between old money wealth and idyllic small town middle class America (Andy Devine and James Stewart) is bridged by a love (you can't help but think it's his position and money she's after, though the film tries in just about every scene to make you believe it's real). After a few drinks at a nearby roadhouse, they stumble upon a justice of the peace in the middle of the night and (from Taylor's perspective) just for the heck of it, get married, a marriage that he must maintain for six months in light of his position in Boston society, which we see snippets of, the best one being a gala dance in Boston after they've been married for five months or so, and Taylor's original fiancé (Binnie Barnes), makes her move to reclaim him . Taylor is probably the best part in the film, though the story could have been sharper.

Small Town Girl is a very predictable movie along the lines of "Boy Meets Girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back" type sappy soap opera. The main reason to see this movie is if you are a James Stewart ( Elmer) or Robert Taylor ( Robert Dakin) completist. The best one in the movie ( by far) is the eighth credited Stewart ( although he was in the movie for only a couple of scenes). It is amazing that MGM really had no idea what to do with him ( even after he became a star with Frank Capra) which is why most of his best films were at other studios ( especially Universal). Taylor like in most of his early films really does nothing for me ( only when he did westerns later in his career did he excel). The girl in the movie Kay Brannan ( Janet Gaynor) was basically ho hum and again did nothing for me. What is most shocking is who directed this movie: William Wellman who is one of the all-time greats. He won an Oscar for A Star Is Born ( with Gaynor), and worked with some of the legends: Gary Cooper, James Cagney, Clark Gable, Barbara Stanwyck, John Wayne, Edward G. Robinson, Gregory Peck, Jean Harlow and even Clint Eastwood to name a few. He did work later on with Taylor in one of Taylor's best films Westward The Women, but here anyone could have directed this film. I give it 5/10 stars ( all for Stewart in his five minutes of the film).

I'm always leery of any film in which a couple marry when they are drunk and then can't remember what happened later when they are sober. That is partially the premise in this film; it is Robert Taylor who is the drunkard and he recalls what happened with great difficulty. Janet Gaynor had been drinking, but she knew what she was doing and took the opportunity to get out of her small-town humdrum life. To me, the situation is virtually impossible, and what J.P. would marry a man who is that pie-eyed? Still, once the event happens, I found myself rather enjoying most of the rest of the movie despite its predictability. Only the yacht trip dragged a little.

I confess I was never a Taylor or Gaynor fan when I say that the best one in the film is 8th-billed James Stewart, playing Gaynor's home-town boyfriend. It wasn't too much longer when his star shone much brighter than either of the two stars in this film.

"Small Town Girl" is a light, entertaining piece starring Janet Gaynor and Robert Taylor. Gaynor is a young woman sick of her humdrum life. When she meets playboy Robert Taylor, she's enchanted by him, as most women of the '30s were. While they're together, he gets smashed and proposes. Thinking of her family and what she's got to go back to, she accepts. He's engaged already, so his family encourages him to wait six months before divorcing the stranger he married. You can figure out the rest.

The two stars are very appealing. Gaynor always had a sweet, charming, and innocent demeanor; Taylor is elegant and handsome. James Stewart plays a neighborhood boy who likes Gaynor. He doesn't have much of a part and very little function in the movie, but he's cute. Seeing him in some of the early films and realizing what a mega-star he became, it's hard to believe he was ever subjected to these tiny roles, but he was. He has more to do in "Murder Man," which is actually earlier than this film. MGM seemed to just stick him where they needed him, as they did Spencer Tracy in his early years. You can't argue with their formula, as it yielded two great stars.