Stars in My Crown (1950)

User Rating:

7.6/10   

Director:

Jacques Tourneur

Writers:

Joe David Brown (novel)
Joe David Brown (adaptation)

Release Date:

11 May 1950 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Family | Western

Plot:

Civil War veteran Josiah Grey comes to a small town to be a gospel minister. In time he has a family and many friends...

Plot Keywords:

Minister | Whipping | Horse And Carriage | Religion | Father Son Relationship

Cast

Joel McCrea	...	Josiah Doziah Gray
Ellen Drew	...	Harriet Gray
Dean Stockwell	...	John Kenyon
Alan Hale	...	Jed Isbell
Lewis Stone	...	Dr. Daniel Kalbert Harris, Sr.
James Mitchell	...	Dr. Daniel Kalbert Harris, Jr.
Amanda Blake	...	Faith Radmore Samuels
Juano Hernandez	...	Uncle Famous Prill
Charles Kemper	...	Prof. Sam Houston Jones
Connie Gilchrist	...	Sarah Isbell
Ed Begley	...	Lon Backett
Jack Lambert	...	Perry Lokey
Arthur Hunnicutt	...	Chloroform Wiggins
Marshall Thompson	...	Narrator (adult John Kenyon) (voice)

Runtime:

89 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

Australia:G | Finland:S | Sweden:15 | USA:Approved (original rating) | USA:G (re-rating) (1971)

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

Final film of Alan Hale.

Lazy tale about a small town preacher post Civil War...

STARS IN MY CROWN takes its time in setting up the pastoral story it tells about a small town preacher and his effect on a western town after the Civil War period. JOEL McCREA is perfect as the stalwart preacher who carries his gun into the town saloon to get attention for his sermon and finds it an effective way to get the men to listen.

He also has to deal with a typhoid epidemic, conflict with the local doctor (JAMES MITCHELL), defending a dignified black man (JUANO HERNANDEZ), and caring for his adopted son (DEAN STOCKWELL). But director Jacques Tourneur takes his time in telling the tale, narrated in lazy fashion by MARSHALL THOMPSON who is supposed to be the grown-up version of Dean Stockwell's character.

It spins dangerously close to cloying sentiment but never oversteps the bounds and is especially compelling when it shows how McCrea manages to dissuade a mob bent on violence with a clever way of defending Juano Hernandez from a lynching. It's this episode that makes the last portion of the story crackle with genuine suspense--although, in some respects, it's rather hard to believe how easily the mob is persuaded to drop the whole idea.

Summing up: Earnest and heartwarming, it's a likable treat.

Trivia note: Catch JAMES ARNESS and AMANDA BLAKE in the same film, before they became famous on "Gunsmoke."