The Walls of Jericho

If you like small-town scandals, like Peyton Place, go out and rent The Walls of Jericho, an aptly titled old classic starring Cornel Wilde, Linda Darnell, Kirk Douglas, Anne Baxter, and Ann Dvorak.

Cornel is in a rut, with his career and his marriage to Ann. His married pals Kirk and Linda have more energy and ambition than him, but they aren't perfect either. Linda has a crush on Cornel, but he still harbors feelings for Anne, a childhood sweetheart. Linda gets upset and insulted, and she makes it her mission to seek revenge on Cornel. Kirk plays the innocent stooge in this one, rather than the villain he played so often in later years, so if you want to see him in a sweet role, you've got to find him in a late-1940s movie.

This isn't the greatest small-town movie, but it certainly is entertaining. It's nice and soapy, with lots of melodrama, angry women in beautiful gowns, innocent men getting made fools of, and over-the-top courtroom scenes. You'll also see Marjorie Rambeau, Henry Hull, and Barton MacLane in the supporting cast.

From 1948, The Walls of Jericho stars Cornel Wilde, Linda Darnell, Kirk Douglas, and Anne Baxter, directed by John Stahl.

Wilde plays Dave Connors, the county attorney in the small town of Jericho, Kansas, at the turn of the century. He's loved by the townspeople and is considering a run for Congress. His life isn't an easy one: his wife (Ann Dvorak) is a drunk and unpleasant.

When his best friend, newspaperman Tucker Wedge (Douglas) introduced Dave to his new wife Algeria (Darnell), it's obvious she's used to a much fancier way of life. She also immediately attracted to Dave.

When she can't get anywhere with him, she convinces her husband to start a campaign about problems in town and blame Dave - except there aren't any problems. Then she convinces Tucker to run for Congress.

Dave, however, is in love with Julia (Anne Baxter) - it's a chaste love, but when they finally declare themselves, he realizes if he runs for Congress, he will never be able to see her even platonically. So he drops out, thwarting Algeria's plans yet again.

Julia leaves town anyway. However, circumstances, bring them back together. Just what Tucker's wife was waiting for.

Darnell has a real Gene Tierney conniver role here - in fact, Gene was set to play it - and she does it well. Anne Baxter is appropriately noble. Cornel Wilde never did it for me. He just can't warm up the camera.

The direction is somewhat static. I saw this on YouTube where all the background noise is described as "applause"

I applaud any movie that has a lot of dramatic incidents but doesn't spill over into melodrama. This is one that fits the bill! Between the alcoholism, unhappy marriages, potential adulterous affairs, town scandals, and a murder trial, it was never overdone or overacted. There are a lot of familiar faces here (Cornell Wilde, Anne Baxter, Kirk Douglas, Linda Darnell, Ann Dvorak, barton MacLane) and they all play their parts well.

Anyone would want to see these walls of Jericho come tumbling down ("Where are you, Joshua?"), ones that keep you in a bad marriage, make you the victim of vicious gossip, and keep you from someone you love.

The ending is left rather ambiguous, as the way it's shown, you're not quite sure if it's going to be happy or sad. I'm opting for happy!

Holy Marcel! What a soap opera! Going into this film, you would think this was a film with Cornel Wilde and Kirk Douglas battling each other. Not at all. Its about the ladies - and they are magnificent.

First there is dipsomaniac Ann Dvorac. She is stuck in an unhappy marriage with Wilde, but won't let him go.

Then there is Anne Baxter. She has loved Wilde since childhood. Wilde falls in love with her. Its 1910. They can't do anything about it.

Then there is Linda Darnell. She is married to Kirk Douglas. He is Wolfe's former best friend and thanks to his ambitious wife, his political rival. She also loves Wilde, but when he rebufs her advances she wants revenge. She does this through ambition, gossip and slander. She accomplishes all this with subtlety, which makes her twice as dangerous.

Of course this all ends up going in circles. What do they do in soap operas to keep the drama going? Throw in a murder trial and a shooting!

All three ladies are stunning in appearance, style and performances. Kirk Douglas doesn't bother fighting for a place or even seem to question, "What's Cornell got that I haven't?"

Cornel Wilde is a county attorney married to alcoholic Ann Dvorak. Wilde's best friend is firebrand newspaper editor Kirk Douglas. Kirk returns to town after a lengthy trip with new bride Linda Darnell in tow. She's a gorgeous society lady who immediately takes a liking to Cornel, but those affections aren't returned by the stoic Wilde. Linda doesn't appreciate the rebuff and sets out to undermine Cornel in any way she can, pushing him away from his friendship with Douglas, and even sabotaging his nascent political career. Cornel is also falling for nice-girl attorney Anne Baxter, but they won't consummate their affair due to Cornel's marriage.

This was based on a novel by Paul Wellman, and it has that slightly clunky feel of a larger work having been whittled down to fit a feature-length script. Certain secondary characters, like those of Henry Hull and Marjorie Rambeau, don't amount to much in the finished work. That being said, I liked this more than most soapy dramas of the time, and all of the leads turn in excellent work. Darnell gives one of her best performances as the scheming manipulator. She's sporting lighter-than-usual hair (blonde? redhead? It's B&W), but she's still beautiful. Dvorak's role is complicated, and while it's smaller than the others, it, too, is one of her best. Wilde is broad-shouldered and quietly dignified, and Douglas, in only his second film, does what he can with a slightly secondary part.