Le mura di Gerico

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!

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"

If you like watching movies that are easy to predict and formulaic...well, this film is not for you! The plot has many unusual twists and turns and it's one of the more unusual Hollywood films of the era.

The story is set in the town of Jericho. Dave Connors (Cornell Wilde) is a very decent man...working hard as a county prosecutor. And, he's easy to like and you find yourself rooting for the guy. The problem is that he's married to a nasty drunk (Ann Dvorak), but he makes the best of it. Even when an old lady friend of his returns to town and she clearly is in love with him and vice-versa, he resists the urge and avoids the woman because he is a faithful, decent man. In addition to this lady coming back to Jericho, an old friend (Kirk Douglas) comes with his gorgeous wife (Linda Darnell)...and she, also, seems very interested in Dave. So where is this all going to end? I bet you couldn't predict it in your lifetime unless you see the film!

I give this film high marks for originality and acting. While Wilde never rose to the upper echelons of actors, he was excellent here...as was everyone. An interesting and often overlooked film from Twentieth Century-Fox that deserves to be seen.

This is a very local soap opera in a small town in the midwest where everyone knows everybody and boredom is escaped by garden parties and rural balls with pianolas, while there is some trouble brewing under the surface. The county attorney Cornel Wilde is married to Ann Dvorak, an alcoholic, and the leading town nespaper man Kirk Douglas brings a bombshell beauty for a wife to town called Linda Darnell. She outshines everyone else and is the most dangerous of all. Gradually Anne Baxter sails up to challenge her in the last moment, but then this surprisingly good film has already advanced into high gear drama ending up in a murder trial.

At first you will suspect that the argument will be about drinking problems, especially as Kirk makes an issue of it in his paper and Cornel's wife never shows herself except when drunk. Neither couple has any children. Kirk is the one who at an early stage wonders why any man should ever marry a woman, and his question proves reasonable, when it is all too late.

Alfred Newman provides the music, always amazingly reliably excellent, and the environment of a small midwest very conventional town around 1910 is endearingly charming. You will be surprised to find such a small local world being able to come up with such a very intriguing drama.