Spitfire (1934)

Mountain girl Trigger Hicks, a fierce loner equally handy with a rock or a prayer, is in danger of having her faith-healing mistaken for witchcraft by the neighbors. She shows a vulnerable ... See full summary »

Director:

John Cromwell

Writers:

Lula Vollmer (from the play by), Jane Murfin (screen play)

Stars:

Katharine Hepburn, Robert Young, Ralph Bellamy

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Katharine Hepburn	...	Trigger Hicks
Robert Young	...	John Stafford
Ralph Bellamy	...	George Fleetwood
Martha Sleeper	...	Eleanor Stafford
Louis Mason	...	Bill Grayson
Sara Haden	...	Etta Dawson (as Sarah Haden)
Virginia Howell	...	Granny Raines
Sidney Toler	...	Mr. Sawyer
Will Geer	...	West Fry (as High Ghere)
John Beck	...	Jake Hawkins
Therese Wittler	...	Mrs. Sawyer
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Irene Rich	...	Undetermined Role (scenes deleted)

Storyline

Mountain girl Trigger Hicks, a fierce loner equally handy with a rock or a prayer, is in danger of having her faith-healing mistaken for witchcraft by the neighbors. She shows a vulnerable side when John Stafford, a philandering engineer working on a new dam, is attracted to her. Matters come to a head when Trigger "rescues" an abused baby from its parents, and seeks help from the engineers.

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Plot Keywords:

engineer | dam | baby | witchcraft | prayer | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Certificate:

Passed

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

30 March 1934 (USA)

Also Known As:

Trigger

Filming Locations:

Lake Arrowhead, San Bernardino National Forest, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

RKO Radio Pictures

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Victor System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The rights to the play "Trigger" were purchased with Dorothy Jordan in mind for the lead. However, Katharine Hepburn agreed to star on the condition that she could leave for New York on November 16, 1933 to appear in the play "The Lake". Shooting of the two final scenes ran about 6 hours late on November 15, 1933, but director John Cromwell was dissatisfied with the results and wanted to reshoot them. Miss Hepburn refused at first, citing the terms of her contract. She then demanded, and received, $10,000 (in addition to her $50,000 salary) to stay an extra day for the reshoot.

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Quotes

John Stafford: You trust me, don't you?
Trigger Hicks: Don't trust no man farther than a shotgun can hit.
John Stafford: Oh, you never loved a man, then, did you?
Trigger Hicks: Sure, I've loved a heap of 'em. The more I love 'em, the less I trust 'em.

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Connections

Featured in Katharine Hepburn: All About Me (1993)

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Soundtracks

At the Cross
(1885) (uncredited)
Music by Hugh Wilson from "Martyrdom" (1800)
Hymn by Isaac Watts (1707)
Refrain and arrangement by Ralph E. Hudson (1885)
Sung a cappella by Katharine Hepburn

User Reviews

"Them that's trash like me" are characters in trash like this

It's a tribute to the great Katharine Hepburn that despite RKO casting her as an Okefenokee swamp hillbilly in "Spitfire," where she plays a character named Trigger (formerly mainly known as Roy Rogers' horse), Hepburn managed to have a magnificent and long career. A role like this would a brung down a lesser filly an' she'd a bin hog-tied an' on her way home on the horse that brung her.

Trigger, anyway, lives in a shack with her drunken pappy, lives on faith and is actually a faith-healer. Her neighbors think she's a witch. Two engineers, John Stafford (Robert Young) and George Fleetwood (Ralph Bellamy) meet Trigger and try to help her after she steals a baby in order to heal him. Both engineers end up falling for Trigger, though John is married and his wife shows up.

Katharine Hepburn's finishing school accent doesn't mix well with mountain talk. This is dreadful miscasting. The film is based on a play, and this was probably a new kind of play that didn't deal with the upper class, so it required a more natural style of acting. There's no denying that Hepburn was a fantastic actress, and she certainly can play the emotions called for in this role. But it's a bad fit.

Sidney Toler, who played Charlie Chan, appears in this film and speaks with the same that thar back-slapping accent as the rest of them.

Odd film, probably an odd play, with a odd cast.