Wednesday | November 15, 2006 9:00 pm

Small Town Girl

Screening on Film

Directed by William A. Wellman.
With Janet Gaynor, Robert Taylor, Binnie Barnes.
US, 1936, 35mm, black & white, 90 min.

For the first time in eight years under contract at Fox, Gaynor was loaned out to another studio (MGM) and attached to this project originally intended as a vehicle for Jean Harlow. Gaynor plays the title part of a sharp young woman stifled by the limits of provincial life. Rich brain surgeon (and charming lush!) Robert Taylor sweeps her away to Boston after a quickie marriage, but snobbish urban society is scandalized by the newlyweds’ spontaneous union. Based on a serialized novel by Ben Ames Williams, and reputedly doctored by a passel of scriptwriters, Small Town Girl was directed with wit and intelligence by William Wellman.