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12"x 26" 3-page trade ad from Motion Picture Herald magazine, 1941.

Movies: Wright's Greatest Sorrow

Click here to read the story:

• How and why Wright got into the movie business

• Which movies were actually based on his stories

• Which were based on stories he had never even seen and quickly despised.

1941,  98 minutes,  Paramount,  Technicolor, 

Reviews: In the early 21st century this movie is widely available in video, and is shown occasionally on television. While most of the characters in the movie are named after those in the novel by Harold Bell Wright, the story is quite different, mainly because the angry and vengeful moonshiner that John Wayne plays is not at all like the strong but gentle Young Matt of the novel. All Harold Bell Wright fans seem to agree that the movie is abominable.

The three 1941 reviews of the movie that I know of are so different that one wonders if the critics saw the same movie.  The Motion Picture Guide has nothing bad to say about the movie, and the New York Times critic has nothing good to say, and the Variety critic says the movie is dreadful but the acting is outstanding.  The story line is this:

When John Wayne, as Young Matt, was a very young man his father abandoned him and his family, causing the death of Wayne's mother. Wayne vows to kill his father if he ever sees him again. He is so filled with anger that the young woman whom he loves is afraid to marry him. The father returns to the Ozark hills incognito as a shepherd and befriends his son, Wayne, who likes his father very much. Eventually Wayne finds out that the Shepherd is his father, and tries to kill him. But then Wayne finds out that the reason his father was gone for 20 years was not because he wanted to abandon his family, but because he had been imprisoned for murder. Once Wayne realizes that his father is only guilty of murder, not family abandonment, they resolve their differences, making it possible for Betty Field to marry him. Obviously, none of this resembles the story of Wright's book.

The Motion Picture Guide says, "This movie gave Wayne's career a healthy boost, as it followed his first major role in the successful movie, Stagecoach.

The New York Times, on the other hand calls the movie, "...a brimming portion of sentimental mush without even a Mickey Mouse at the bottom of the bowl."  Elsewhere that critic mentions "a mouthful of platitudes," "gummy emotionalism," and "tediously prolonged."  "The Shepherd of the Hills is a lachrymose bore. His holiness is synthetic: he sells his homilies cheap."  I suppose "his holiness" refers to Harold Bell Wright, but can't tell for sure. Maybe he is referring to the Shepherd, or to John Wayne.

The Variety critic comments that "Picture delineates characteristics and conditions in the Ozark back country, and proceeds to leisurely unfold a tale of backwoods drama disclosing Americana hillbilly life that is both interesting and unexciting in turn." But he devoted the next several paragraphs to praising the acting: "Picture is studded with excellent performances from top to bottom."

Release:  Columbia Pictures

Production: Produced by Jack Moss

Director:  Henry Hathaway

Writing/Screenplay: From Harold Bell Wright's novel by same name.

Location: Cedar Lake Camp, Big Bear Lake, California (In southern California, about an hour's drive northeast of San Bernardino.

Availability: This movie has been released on video several times, but in early 2005 was out of print. But copies are almost always available on eBay and at amazon.com