Reviewed by Anne Wollenberg
Stars Henry Fonda, Sylvia Sydney, Frank MacMurray, Fred Stone, Fuzzy Knight, Beulah Bondi
Written by Grover Jones, Horace McCoy & Harvey F Thew, based on the novel by John Fox Jr
UK certification PG | UK RRP £15.99 | DVD Region 2 | Runtime 95 minutes | Directed by Henry Hathaway
The first outdoor feature film to be produced in full Technicolor, this romantic drama still looks good 73 years after its original release.That’s not just because it has been digitally restored – The Trail of the Lonesome Pine is skillfully directed and full of gorgeous scenery. It’s set against some Californian mountains, if you were wondering, though the film is set in Kentucky.
It may have been 1936, but this was not the first adaptation of John Fox Jr’s novel – which was inspired by a real-life feud between two American families, the Hatfields and the McCoys, who you probably won’t have heard of anyway – but the fifth. Sylvia Sydney is mountain girl June Tolliver, who gets caught up in a love triangle. There’s her cousin Dave (Henry Fonda), and then there’s outsider Jack Hale (Fred MacMurray), who walks into the middle of a long-running feud between two families as he plans to build a railroad through their land. Nobody even really knows what they’re fighting about any more, but the feud simmers and boils over until things come to a head with a tragic accident that brings everyone to their senses.
The Trail of the Lonesome Pine is surprisingly watchable. It has a tendency towards melodrama, with some rather overwrought dialogue, but it benefits from some strong performances, particularly from Fonda, and Spanky McFarland (most famous for appearing in Our Gang) who puts in a star turn as June’s little brother Buddie.
EXTRAS None (it has scene selection though).