La provinciale

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 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.

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).

Traffic sends the rich crowd attending the Yale-Harvard football game to drive through a small town. Local guy Elmer Clampett (James Stewart) likes small town girl Kay Brannan (Janet Gaynor) but she doesn't feel the same. She encounters rich Boston doctor Bob Dakin (Robert Taylor) asking for directions. A drunken Dakin marries Kay who only wants to leave her small town. He's supposed to marry girlfriend Priscilla Hyde in two weeks. He wants an annulment but his father refuses to give him the easy way out for many reasons.

This is very early in Jimmy Stewart's career so it's reasonable that he's not the leading man. It doesn't stop me from wondering if he would be the better one to lead in this movie. That's not to say that Robert Taylor is a nobody. He's definitely a leading man of his era and he fits a little better as the rich playboy. It's to his credit that he is able to maintain some sympathies despite what the character could have been. As it stands, the rooting interest is still for Kay to go with Elmer. Jimmy is quite a catch.

For most of her career Janet Gaynor did nothing, but play small town girls, the best known being Esther Blodgett. But I've seen her in films like State Fair and Three Loves Has Nancy and it's the same part, the girl from the tiny hamlet who conquers the big city and the men in it. With a title like this, there was only one casting possibility.

Janet's a girl who's thoroughly stuck in a rut in her New England hamlet and yearns for a little adventure. She finds it in the person of Robert Taylor, a young doctor who comes from a wealthy Boston family. After a night's carousing Gaynor and Taylor are married, to the chagrin of his fiancé, Binnie Barnes and her boyfriend James Stewart.

Remember this is Boston so Taylor's father Lewis Stone prevails on Taylor to give the marriage a few months trial. Of course this is where the balance of the story comes in. In many ways this plot seems like a harbinger of The Way We Were.

Taylor's career was now in full swing as Small Town Girl was the next film after his breakout performance in Magnificent Obsession. Remember in that film he was a playboy who became a doctor. Here's he's a doctor who doubles as a playboy. Never mind though, feminine hearts all over the English speaking world were fluttering over MGM's latest heartthrob. My mother who was a juvenile at this time told me that Taylor's appeal back in these days was just about the same as Elvis's.

James Stewart was at the beginning of his career as well as MGM had him in about seven features in 1936, mostly in support. Interesting though with worse career management, he could have gone on playing hick roles like Elmer the boyfriend. But it was also obvious there was a spark of stardom with him as well.

Gaynor would leave the screen a few years later, Taylor was at the beginning of his career. He'd have better acting roles in his future, but for now Small Town Girl is a great example of the screen heartthrob he was at the beginning of his stardom. Fans of both stars will like what they see in Small Town Girl.