Home Town Story

Hometown Story, a rather cheaply made film, even for a B picture and especially since it comes from MGM, is stalwart Republican Louis B. Mayer's defense of the free enterprise system. Not that he hadn't done it before, one of the most rightwing films ever made came out of his studio a decade earlier with Boom Town. But that film was a big production with some heavy duty name players in it. This one was made with frugality in mind.

Jeffrey Lynn is our star who has returned to his hometown in Hometown Story a defeated State Senator, defeated by Hugh Beaumont grandson of Donald Crisp who is the biggest employer in the area. Lynn takes over the newspaper and decides to use it to gain support for a comeback bid. And who to go after but the biggest target around.

And if you can't find an issue, create one. Lynn attacks what he labels the obscene profits of Crisp's firm and others like it. That sends Crisp into Lynn's office with a theory of capitalism and a defense of his business practices.

At first people might dismiss this film because in this day and age we now see what corporations like Enron and investment banks like Goldman-Sachs have done. But I would quote no less than Martin Sheen from Wall Street who says there is a great deal of difference between speculators like Michael Douglas and businessmen like Crisp who started the business and put their work and sweat into it.

Of course it would be interesting 60 years later to see if that Hometown Story now includes said firm moving to a foreign country or to some state with right to work laws and no environmental regulations. It's a complicated business with no easy answers.

Hometown Story would be gathering dust in a tin can at MGM's vaults if it weren't for the fact that Marilyn Monroe has a small role as a secretary at Lynn's newspaper. She's not Lynn's love interest, that's reserved for Marjorie Reynolds. But she does send Lynn's best friend and star reporter Alan Hale into a tizzy. The future skipper of the USS Minow has his hormones in overdrive.

Economics is not an easy subject for films and Hometown Story will not provide any answers. But it's pleasant enough viewing.

From an artistic perspective, this is an awful film. It did not start as a film originally, it started as a commercial, but was expanded into a movie. The film was commissioned by General Motors, and was never released commercially. The film production was supervised by the head of GM's film division, John K. Ford. The film was meant as corporate propaganda for GM, except the shoddy manner in which it was done makes Soviet propaganda look like a masterpiece. Basically the plot goes like this: a politician says something negative about the town's largest company. The company president then comes in and makes a five minute speech about how much the corporation has done and the glories of capitalism. Then later on a newspaper writer says something negative about the company. The corporate executive comes in again and makes a ten minute speech about how great their corporation, and every American corporation for that matter is. And so on and so forth. One of the characters is Alan Hale, better known as the Skipper on Gilligan's Island. Marilyn Monroe also has a small part, she is onscreen for less than two minutes. In the end of the movie, the politician/journalist's little sister gets buried in a cave-in. The company springs into action, and uses it's latest developed technology to save her. The company president flies the girl to a hospital and saves her life. The politician/journalist sees the light and how wonderful the corporation, and all corporations are. Barf.

This unreleased GM inhouse movie was on TV as a late night movie recently (probably because it had two minutes of yet-to-be-a-star Marilyn Monroe in it), it was so awful I had to find out who wrote, directed and produced it. As I said, it was produced by GM - the writer and director was Arthur Pierson. Four years later Pierson would direct "Born In Freedom: The Story of Colonel Drake", a 30 minute movie about the beginning of the oil industry. I had read how US corporations produced a lot of these propaganda films (as well as books etc.) in the 1950's and tried to get them out there before they came upon more subtle and persuasive techniques and not this hard, bang-you-over-the-head with Soviet-style shoddy propaganda. If anything, this movie is an artifact of that happening, and perhaps interesting in that respect.

"Home Town Story" is a frustrating B-movie from MGM. It has a few excellent story ideas but manages to execute them quite poorly. Despite this, it is watchable.

Jeffrey Lynn plays Blake Washburn--an ex-senator with a serious chip on his shoulder. He's mad he lost the re-election and is bent on punishing the guy responsible. So, as the new editor of a newspaper, he's bent on attacking the MacFarland family business--because the factory owner's son beat Washburn in the election! If Washburn sounds like a petty jerk, then you are correct. In addition to using the paper for his personal vendetta, he seriously ignores his incredibly long-suffering fiancé. Therein lies much of the problem with the film--the main character is unlikable and you really want a piano to fall on his head (or some equally horrid accident). Additionally, the film has a very odd message about economics and capitalism that COULD have been excellent had the message not been hammered home so poorly. Overall, despite the MGM glitz and a few good actors (I like the Washburn kid), it's a film that needed more time to allow the plot to move realistically instead of being so rushed and contrived.

An ex-politician called Blake Washburn (Jeffrey Lynn) and now an ambitious journalist blames a manager and Senator McFarland (Donald Crisp) for election as a senator but he was defeated . Then he denounces the big business in a newspaper called ¨The Herald¨ . He confronts his enemy by means of news , complaining about the profits melon and excessive richness of stockholders . At the newspaper works a gorgeous secretary called Iris (Marilyn Monroe) . When an unfortunate fact happens , his small sister is trapped into a mine , Washburn ought to examine his point of views and consider the profits to the customer .

The film contains social critical , drama and a little bit of comedy . The picture is short time , one hour approximately , for that reason is quickly seen and isn't boring . This is one of a handful of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer productions of the 1950-1951 period whose original copyrights were never renewed and are now apparently in Public Domain . It appears notorious secondary actors as Donald Crisp (How green was my valley), he makes an intelligent speech about profits . And , of course , Marilyn Monroe , before becoming famous with Niagara (1953) she acted in various roles as a blonde sexpot secretary . Marilyn Monroe was often expected to provide her own wardrobe , in fact , the sweater with the grey body and black sleeves that she wears worn previously in Fireball (1950) and in the final scene in All about Eva (1950). The motion picture was regularly directed by Arthur Pierson . Rating : passable and entertaining.

Yes I bought the DVD because of the Marilyn Monroe connection, but found a 1951 movie that was quite compelling as typical of the era: Yes, McCarthyism was raging, and the film had an "america is great" message. But that's all right. It was a good "morality story". Well written. Enjoyable (and this from a big liberal).

Allen Hale Jr. is great as the reporter and former WWII Sea-Bee. And I love the character actress who plays the Society Reporter at the newspaper. And, of course, Marjery Reynolds had a great career on early television, shortly after this film.

But the best performance - great despite the fact that it is the vehicle to please the "anti Communist" / Black-list fear of 1951, is that of Donald Crisp: an incredible actor!!