Way Back Home

Life on the Farm and Hill Folk in General have Always been Good and mostly Innocent Entertainment for ever. Ma and Pa Kettle, Francis the Talking Mule, The Real McCoys, The Beverly Hillbillies, The Waltons, Etc.

This Dusty Antique is No Exception. Even before making it to the Screen it was a Popular Radio Show. The Film Version is a Homey, Tear-Jerker that is Livened Up with a lot of Songs and some Homespun Humor.

The Talkies were often over Burdened with Music and Songs feeling out the New Technology for this and that to See what Audiences Liked and of Course because Everyone Likes a Tune or two.

In this one there may be a Tune too Many but what is here are some Classic Sing-A-Longs that Raise the Spirit more than they make the Toe Tap. The Two Intertwining Stories are Emotional to Say the Least.

One is the Foster Son Raised by the Farmers that They obviously Love and He Loves Them. His Real Father Abandon Him for 10 Years, an Alcoholic and really Bad Guy, is back an Up to No Good.

The Second is where Bette Davis comes in. She Plays the Daughter of a Bigot (with a Whip) trying to keep Her from Dating a "Bastard Child", for Pre-Code enthusiasts.

Overall, it is a Product of its Time, and the Messages and Good Feelings that this Produce are for the Ages. It also Contains some Interesting, Supporting, Comedy Relief Characters. Heartwarming and Recommended.

This film gets off to a very slow start with a scene where an old New England farmer drives a tax accountant from the city nuts with his convoluted tales of bartering and swapping; being an accountant, he just wants the numbers. This went on so long, I almost gave up before the movie got underway, but I'm glad I stuck with it. It's not a great story, and it's certainly not what you'd call a Bette Davis film--she's a secondary character.

What it does do very well is to depict a rural American life that is long gone--listening in on the party line, sharing preserves with the neighbors, a taffy pull, and especially singing. The folks all gather at the preacher's house to sing the traditional American standards of the day, accompanied by the preacher's wife on a pump organ: "Love's Old Sweet Song," "Put On Your Old Grey Bonnet," "Seeing Nellie Home," and the like. I imagine these are mostly forgotten today, and it's nice to see them preserved in a relatively realistic context such as this. An unexpected pleasure.

Well, the first eight minutes are spent on a long, slow comedy bit between Seth (Phillips Lord) and the tax man, in an Abbott & Costello-type who's-on-first routine. That just goes on way too long. Audiences of the day would have been familiar with radio personality Seth Parker, kind of a Pa Kettle kind of guy. Bette Davis is "Mary", his daughter, who is trying to figure a way to get to the barn dance. This was only Davis' fourth role, and she plays it very straight forward... at twenty-three, she hadn't yet developed her sophisticated, scheming style. Effie Palmer is Ma Parker - in one of the two films she made, and both in 1931. One of the characters talks about going to Bangor ("Bangah"), presumably Maine, but the only new england accent we hear is one very badly-done one. The actress playing Lizzie (Sophia Lord... Phillips' actual wife) was actually BORN in Connecticut, so you'd think she would be more familiar with a new england accent! I guess that explains why she only (over)acted in this one film. Oscar Apfel (from Shop around the Corner, and SO many others) is a minor character here, but he doesn't have his usual giant, twitchy, mustache, so you almost don't recognize him. Not at all coherent; the main story seems to be Mary and David sneaking around to try to spend time together alone, but Mary's father is determined to keep them apart. There's also the side story of Rufe Turner (Stanley Fields) trying to take his son back from the man who raised him. Again, Fields' own story is quite interesting; Fields had been a boxer, moved into vaudeville, then into films. Everyone's real life story is much more interesting than the story we are watching here. Seth and his cronies sit around and sing a beautiful version of Love's Old Sweet Song at one point, but other than that there isn't much going on here. Some of the other songs used are more from the south - several Stephen Foster songs, Turkey in the Straw, which isn't really appropriate for a film taking place in Maine. Directed by William Seiter, who worked with the Marx Brothers and Laurel and Hardy later in his career. This wasn't one of his better films.

This is NOT a movie for a wised-up 21st century audience. This is a picture designed specifically for the millions of fans of Phillips Lord's popular radio series Sunday Evenings at Seth Parker's. The story is a cracker barrel melodrama, the type that would be elevated a few years later by Philip Stong in his A VILLAGE TALE (also filmed by RKO, in 1934). The acting in WAY BACK HOME is sincere and quaint. Stanley Fields is the perfect villain, even without a moustache to twirl. The hilarious opening scene between Seth Parker and the tax man (Wade Boteler) was perhaps an inspiration for MGM's THE MATING GAME. Little Frankie Darro is terrific as Robbie. But the big prize goes to Bette Davis. Even amidst the tried-and-true showboat dramatics she pulls off a 100% believable, emotional performance. There was no question that this girl was going places and a lot farther than Jonesport! The community sing sequences in the Parkers' parlor are perhaps the most reminiscent of a bygone era. The harmonies are wonderful and they brought a great big smile to this audience member. Finally, a mention of the character "Cephus." I suspect Edgar Bergen was one of the listeners of SETH PARKER and might have based his Mortimer Snerd characterization on Bennett Kilpack's Cephus. This was Kilpack's only apparent film appearance, yet he became a titan in radio, creating and starring in MR. KEEN, TRACER OF LOST PERSONS. If WAY BACK HOME should come your way, give it a chance. But put yourself in the proper mood. It must be viewed in context and without a jaded mind or stony heart!

... from RKO and director William Seiter. Old man preacher Seth Parker (Phillips Lord) and his wife (Effie Palmer) have trouble with their two wards: young Robbie (Frankie Darro) was left with them by his mother before she passed and made them swear to keep the boy safely away from his abusive father. Naturally, the brute (Stanley Fields) shows up and wants the kid back. Meanwhile, their other ward, Mary Lucy (Bette Davis), has been kicked out of her own home by her parents, and disapprove of her fraternizing with the low-born David (Frank Albertson).

Seth Parker was a popular radio show at the time, the creation of 29 year old Phillips Lord, who plays him in the movie under a big phony white beard and wig. It was considered dated and hackneyed even in 1931, with little appeal to younger listeners, so the screenwriters spiced it up a bit with the Davis/Albertson romance and some "high-speed" wagon chases at the end. That didn't save the movie for me, however, and I found it dull, tedious, and dumb, with bad performances and hoary dialogue that is nearly as dusty as the backroads of California that stand in for Maine. Davis isn't bad, and she's said to have liked the movie, since it allowed her to play an attractive girl at a time when the studios weren't giving her those kind of roles.