Amor dos Simples

"Romance of the Limberlost", according to an article in a magazine review of very old Hollywood forgotten films was said to be "a lost film". I searched among my old 30's films for about 20 minutes and was surprised to find it. I thought I had it but I hadn't seen it for many years.

Romance is a campestral tale that takes place in "The Limberlost" a swamp-like area in 1905.However, one never sees anything that even suggest a swamp.It is rather a rural setting, where Jean Parker(Laurie) is an innocent young girl who would rather commune with nature and her friends than work for her aunt,(in what is apparently a white slavery nightmare.)Marjorie Main plays the evil aunt who blackmails her niece with scandalous lies.

There is a murder that brings a young boy to trial, his only friend and advocate is Jean Parker who entreats the help of a young lawyer (Eric Linden).

This is not your average 1930's story and certainly nothing that one sees today.For that reason it is refreshing, and in its innocence concerning youth and wildlife-it is beautiful and extremely rare.

Laurie (Jean Parker)lives in the Limberlost (swampy timberland found in the American south)with her Aunt Nora (Marjorie Main), who hates the girl because her mother married the man Nora had loved. Laurie's existence is much the same as a bonded servant and she gets no encouragement from her aunt as she tries to overcome her environment by studying. Laurie's only friends are the birds and animals of the forest, and a young boy named Chris (Hollis Jewell), a bound boy to Corson (Edward Pawley), a drunken, coarse bully who is the wealthiest man in the community. Laurie meets and falls in love with Wayne (Eric Linden)whose ambition is to become a lawyer.

In the meantime, Corson, a widower, decides he wants to marry again and bargains with Nora to get Laurie as his bride. He promises to support Nora for the rest of her life in style and wealth. Laurie agrees to the forced marriage because Nora threatens to involve her dead mother in a scandal. Chris, secretly in love with Laurie, threatens to kill Corson before he will let him marry Laurie.

On the night before the wedding, Chris follows Corson to the barn, with a gun, but the bully disarms him with a whip. Accidentally, Corson falls onto the gun which he has seized from Chris, and is killed.

Chris is charged with murder, and Wayne agrees to defend him.

There are a lot of similarities between Romance Of The Limberlost and such films as Shepherd Of The Hills, Trail Of The Lonesome Pine, The Yearling, and Spitfire all set in some truly rural areas All of those films had the advantage of much bigger budgets from bigger studios than Romance Of The Limberlost which was an item from Monogram.

Our main character is Jean Parker a free spirited lass who to escape the tyrannical bullying of her aunt Marjorie Main who has raised her since her mother died by going into the forest. She's got more critter friends than Elly Mae Clampett and a couple of human friends in Eric Linden who wants to be a lawyer and simple swamp kid Hollis Jewell.

Main is fixing to marry Parker off to the much older and richer Edward Pawley whose puss was in many a Warner Brothers gangster flick of the Thirties. He's a mean brute looking for a nice young trophy wife.

When Pawley is killed, it's Jewell who's arrested at the scene and it's Linden who defends him. During that trial a whole lot of hidden truths come out.

Limberlost is the name for the swamp area in Indiana where the action takes place. Being from Monogram this didn't have too much in the way of production values. But the earnestness of the players overcomes a lot of that.

Marjorie Main is almost a synonym for female rustic characters on screen. But the woman wasn't always comical as she was in the Ma&Pa Kettle series. She could do a dramatic turn with the best as witness by this film and her performance in that most urban of dramas Dead End as Humphrey Bogart's mother.

Romance Of The Limberlost is worth a look.

A young girl Laurie lives a life of misery with her cruel aunt in a small swamp village. The wealthiest man in the area makes a pact with the aunt so that he can take the girl's hand in marriage. This man is a drunken bully and old enough to be her father, so this is a pretty horrendous turn of events. Laurie has to rely on a few good souls to help her escape from this dreadful fate.

Romance of the Limberlost is a very enjoyable melodrama. Its success is down to a simple but engaging story with good characterisation and a likable heroine. You really care for her predicament and this is ultimately what makes the film work. It's a feel-good romance at the end of the day. It also has a sweet scene in the forest where Laurie interacts with a selection of wild animals. It's a slightly surreal moment that adds a nice touch of the fantastic to proceedings.

This is a very obscure film but it really shouldn't be. It's one of the better poverty row dramas that I have seen and is very accessible. It deserves a wider audience.

Having seen and loved THE KEEPER OF THE BEES, I was happy to find another filmed version of a Gene Stratton-Porter story.

This story centers of a young girl named Laurie (Jean Parker), raised in the limberlost (timbered swamp land in Indiana) by her bitter aunt (Marjorie Main). It seems Laurie's mother married the man the aunt wanted for herself.

Laurie is a dreamy young lady who collects butterflies, reads books, and dreams of going to the city. One day she means a city lady lost in the swamp (Betty Blythe) and they become friends. She also meets a young man (Eric Linden) who has just graduated from law school.

The local thug is also the area's richest man (Edward Pawley) who has his eye on Laurie since his wife is dead. He persuades the aunt to let him marry the girl by promising her money and clearing the mortgage debt on her shack. But Laurie has seen him beat a poor orphan boy he took in to work around his place. And she has fallen for the young lawyer.

The aunt prevails by telling Laurie that her parents were never married and that the mother killed herself. She'll tell everyone if she doesn't marry the old man.

At the joyless wedding, the townspeople stand around like statues because they are appalled the aunt has forced the girl into marriage with the brute. But the orphan boy changes everything when he threatens to shoot the old man.

This is a low budget film from Monogram studio with lots of outside filming. Parker and Linden are excellent as the young couple. Former silent star, Betty Blythe, is warm as the caring lady. Pawley is appropriately snarky as the brute. Also good are Hollis Jewell as the orphan and George Cleveland and Sarah Padden as the store owners. But it's Marjorie Main as the grim aunt who turns in a great performance. There's not a whisper of humor in her Aunt Nora.

Very enjoyable film with a good story and a solid cast.