Hurricane at Pilgrim Hill (TV 1950)

An elderly man leaves Wyoming to visit his daughter in a small Massachusetts town because, even though she didn't say so, he believes she needs his help. When he gets there he discovers ... See full summary »

Director:

Richard L. Bare

Writer:

James Charles Lynch (magazine story "The Battle at Pilgrim Hill")

Stars:

Clem Bevans, Cecil Kellaway, David Bruce

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Clem Bevans	...	Sam 'Bigmouth' Smedley
Cecil Kellaway	...	Jonathan Huntoon Smith
David Bruce	...	Tom Adams, Smith's Attorney
Virginia Grey	...	Janet Smedley Adams
Robert Board	...	Steve Terhune (as Bob Board)
Leslie Banning	...	Debbie Smith, Jonathan's Daughter (as Leslye Banning)
Syd Saylor	...	Sheriff Luke Arundle
Frank Lackteen	...	Broken Head (Running Deer in Credits)
Oliver Blake	...	Running Deer (Broken Head in Credits)
Billy Gray	...	Johnny, Bigmouth's Grandson
Ann Doran	...	Katie, his mother
Harry Hayden	...	Man on Train

Storyline

An elderly man leaves Wyoming to visit his daughter in a small Massachusetts town because, even though she didn't say so, he believes she needs his help. When he gets there he discovers that his daughter, a lawyer, is under great stress because of her biggest client, an old geezer who is the wealthiest and most powerful man in town. The girl's father decides to make the old man "disappear" by performing a rain dance he learned from an Indian chief back in Wyoming--and lo and behold it starts to rain and the old man does indeed disappear. The local sheriff, however, suspects foul play and arrests the girl's father.

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Genres:

Action | Comedy | Romance | Western

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

8 December 1950 (USA)

Filming Locations:

Hal Roach Studios - 8822 Washington Blvd., Culver City, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Hal Roach Studios

Technical Specs

Runtime:

51 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Made for television and shown on Magnavox Theatre 8 December 1950, released to theatres in 1953, but bookings were sparse.

User Reviews

Old-timer's planning creates havoc.

Spindleshanked but supple veteran character actor Clem Bevans is given a rare lead in this 1949 film, not released until five years after, as Sam "Bigmouth" Smedley, a Wyoming resident who entrains to Pilgrim Hill, Massachusetts to visit his daughter Janet (Virginia Grey) whose letters have impressed him as being indicative of a need for parental help. Sam is an abrasive, jabbering curmudgeon and quickly discovers that the basis for his daughter's dissatisfaction lies with her lawyer husband Tom's primary client and neighbor, wealthy Jonathan Smith (Cecil Kellaway), an officious gentleman but also the most powerful person in the quiet seacoast town and Sam's response to Janet's discontent is to do away with Smith by "causing" a hurricane to appear while Smith is alone on an offshore island. To create the hurricane, Smedley performs a rain dance taught him by an Indian and observed by the local sheriff, after which coincidentally a hurricane does, indeed, appear and the sheriff, believing Smith to be drowned, wishes to arrest the old westerner for manslaughter, but able hands attempt to intervene in order to extricate all from their troubles. A low-budget Hal Roach, Jr., production, this little-known film provides hardly anything with which to recommend it, and Bevans actually becomes irritating rather than endearing, but treatment given the opening scene featuring two other character actors, Frank Lackteen and Oliver Blake, as train station vagrant but prosperous Indians proves to be well-written and quite funny.