Depressing and often melodramatic, this well acted tale of unexpected love has its good points, but even with its California mountain setting often feels claustrophobic and moody. 22 year old Ida Lupino (nearing 28 in real life) is a lonely and miserably unhappy mountain girl, stuck in the loveless home with two parents who hate each other, and thus she has come to no longer love them. The sudden glimpse of a prison work crew scraping out the sides of a mountain range overlooking the ocean draws her curiosity in on one man, the violent Dane Clark, who escapes and hides out in her secret cabin where she finds him. They naturally fall in love, ans she hides him from the posse after them.
It comes to life here and there, with parents Henry Hull and Faye Bainter finding each other as a result of her sudden absence, and Lupino's pursuit by foreman Wayne Morris pushing her closer to Clark. We're supposed to believe that simply by her daughter's sudden absence that Bainter decides out of the blue to get out of bed, put on a new dress, and smile at a husband she has obviously despised for years, and everything between them will change.
Sort of a follow-up to "High Sierra" for Lupino, this has an often inappropriate musical score that sounds too happy for the dramatic scenes it plays during. Technically superb and frequently romantic, it's still difficult to accept the usually tough Lupino as a stuttering mountain gal, although a scene where she allows a squirrel to climb on her is cute.
There's also no exposition as to why Hull and Bainter have come to hate each other and how Lupino's stutter, so prominent in the opening scenes, will disappear much like how Emperor Claudius of Rome lost his when not around people who considered him a fool. I appreciate the attempt to go down John Steinbeck territory in the style of "Tortilla Flat" and "Cannery Row", but it ultimately ends up slightly disappointing in spite of some obvious qualities.
It comes to life here and there, with parents Henry Hull and Faye Bainter finding each other as a result of her sudden absence, and Lupino's pursuit by foreman Wayne Morris pushing her closer to Clark. We're supposed to believe that simply by her daughter's sudden absence that Bainter decides out of the blue to get out of bed, put on a new dress, and smile at a husband she has obviously despised for years, and everything between them will change.
Sort of a follow-up to "High Sierra" for Lupino, this has an often inappropriate musical score that sounds too happy for the dramatic scenes it plays during. Technically superb and frequently romantic, it's still difficult to accept the usually tough Lupino as a stuttering mountain gal, although a scene where she allows a squirrel to climb on her is cute.
There's also no exposition as to why Hull and Bainter have come to hate each other and how Lupino's stutter, so prominent in the opening scenes, will disappear much like how Emperor Claudius of Rome lost his when not around people who considered him a fool. I appreciate the attempt to go down John Steinbeck territory in the style of "Tortilla Flat" and "Cannery Row", but it ultimately ends up slightly disappointing in spite of some obvious qualities.