La petite provinciale

Knew this would be a good film because it was directed by William A. Wellman who is a famous director. This story deals with a young girl named Kay Brannan, (Janet Gaynor) who lives in a small town and Kay is getting tired of the same people and the same things that they talk about and also having to marry the same type of man everyone else does. On night she is walking around her town and she meets up with Dr. Bob Dakin, (Robert Taylor) who takes her to a bar and they both get rather smashed. They wind up going to a justice of the peace in the middle of the morning and get married and you can just imagine what happens the next morning when they both wake up. There is plenty of comedy and a very cute love story which will warm your heart. Enjoy.

"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 (1936)

*** (out of 4)

Charming Cinderella type story about a poor farm girl (Janet Gaynor) who goes out with a rich playboy (Robert Taylor) and after getting drunk the two are married. When they sober up they realize the mistake they've made but agree to stay married for six months so that the scandal won't ruin his career. Director Wellman handles the rather sappy story very well and the two stars really shine, which is the main reason this film works. Gaynor is very charming here and quite believable as the poor girl who gets caught up in something she didn't expect. Taylor is equally impressive and is able to be charming yet a jerk at the same time. The strong supporting cast includes Lewis Stone, Binnie Barnes, Andy Devine and James Stewart. The film runs a tad bit too long and is quite predictable but there's no denying the charm between the cast.

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).

I'm always leery of any film in which a couple marry when they are drunk and then can't remember what happened later when they are sober. That is partially the premise in this film; it is Robert Taylor who is the drunkard and he recalls what happened with great difficulty. Janet Gaynor had been drinking, but she knew what she was doing and took the opportunity to get out of her small-town humdrum life. To me, the situation is virtually impossible, and what J.P. would marry a man who is that pie-eyed? Still, once the event happens, I found myself rather enjoying most of the rest of the movie despite its predictability. Only the yacht trip dragged a little.

I confess I was never a Taylor or Gaynor fan when I say that the best one in the film is 8th-billed James Stewart, playing Gaynor's home-town boyfriend. It wasn't too much longer when his star shone much brighter than either of the two stars in this film.