Susan Hayward is so unlikable in this movie. She may be beautiful, but her character is just awful. She starts off as a young bride who lied to get her husband, is silly and inept in her domestic skills, buys expensive clothes she can't afford, encourages a rebellious romance disapproved of by the girl's family, blackmails a member of the community, then selfishly focuses on her own sorrows rather than support her neighbors in their times of need, and presumes to rudely and strongly tell-off a member of the congregation after the mere assumption that she might be flirting with her husband. After such an uncalled for confrontation, she then lies to her husband about it.
While minister William Lundigan and his wife Suzy are supposed to be the heroes of this story, I saw things from a different angle. Alexander Knox held my sympathy, and after his Oscar-nominated turn in Wilson, it's great to see him get the "and" in the credits and take on another meaty role. In this one, he's the head of the only "heathen" family in the town, and because of his beliefs, he's repeatedly harassed by his neighbors and pressured by the minister to get him to take his family to church. If the beliefs were reversed, and a town full of atheists bullied a Christian family, the outcast family would surely elicit the most sympathy. Alex is given great lines about free will and his intention to the use the mind God gave him, and William tries manipulation, guilt, and sneaky back-door persuasion to get Alex's kids to go to church without him. When he's finally successful, there's a terrible, tragic accident and Alex is the one who suffers. Yet the audience's sympathy is diverted to feel for William and Suzy as they have more minor tragedy; Alex is literally wiped off the screen for 25 minutes.
I'm not sure if this film just didn't stand the test of time, or if I wasn't the target audience. William is perfectly cast as a minister with more self-importance than the whole town put together, but he seems to do more damage than good, and that's not the point of the story. Gene Lockhart has a foolish, rebellious young daughter in love with the no-good Rory Calhoun. He makes it exceedingly clear he doesn't want his daughter running around with Rory, and William and Suzy repeatedly help them meet in secret rendezvous.
From start to finish, this movie is one pompous disappointment. There's only so much Susan Hayward's beauty can cover for, and it can't cover for this movie. Sol Kaplan's perfect music also couldn't make the movie better than it was. The ending, which I won't spoil, is so awful, I couldn't even dignify it with an eye-roll. I had to pop in another movie just to get the taste out of my mouth.
While minister William Lundigan and his wife Suzy are supposed to be the heroes of this story, I saw things from a different angle. Alexander Knox held my sympathy, and after his Oscar-nominated turn in Wilson, it's great to see him get the "and" in the credits and take on another meaty role. In this one, he's the head of the only "heathen" family in the town, and because of his beliefs, he's repeatedly harassed by his neighbors and pressured by the minister to get him to take his family to church. If the beliefs were reversed, and a town full of atheists bullied a Christian family, the outcast family would surely elicit the most sympathy. Alex is given great lines about free will and his intention to the use the mind God gave him, and William tries manipulation, guilt, and sneaky back-door persuasion to get Alex's kids to go to church without him. When he's finally successful, there's a terrible, tragic accident and Alex is the one who suffers. Yet the audience's sympathy is diverted to feel for William and Suzy as they have more minor tragedy; Alex is literally wiped off the screen for 25 minutes.
I'm not sure if this film just didn't stand the test of time, or if I wasn't the target audience. William is perfectly cast as a minister with more self-importance than the whole town put together, but he seems to do more damage than good, and that's not the point of the story. Gene Lockhart has a foolish, rebellious young daughter in love with the no-good Rory Calhoun. He makes it exceedingly clear he doesn't want his daughter running around with Rory, and William and Suzy repeatedly help them meet in secret rendezvous.
From start to finish, this movie is one pompous disappointment. There's only so much Susan Hayward's beauty can cover for, and it can't cover for this movie. Sol Kaplan's perfect music also couldn't make the movie better than it was. The ending, which I won't spoil, is so awful, I couldn't even dignify it with an eye-roll. I had to pop in another movie just to get the taste out of my mouth.