Way Back Home

... from RKO and director William Seiter. Old man preacher Seth Parker (Phillips Lord) and his wife (Effie Palmer) have trouble with their two wards: young Robbie (Frankie Darro) was left with them by his mother before she passed and made them swear to keep the boy safely away from his abusive father. Naturally, the brute (Stanley Fields) shows up and wants the kid back. Meanwhile, their other ward, Mary Lucy (Bette Davis), has been kicked out of her own home by her parents, and disapprove of her fraternizing with the low-born David (Frank Albertson).

Seth Parker was a popular radio show at the time, the creation of 29 year old Phillips Lord, who plays him in the movie under a big phony white beard and wig. It was considered dated and hackneyed even in 1931, with little appeal to younger listeners, so the screenwriters spiced it up a bit with the Davis/Albertson romance and some "high-speed" wagon chases at the end. That didn't save the movie for me, however, and I found it dull, tedious, and dumb, with bad performances and hoary dialogue that is nearly as dusty as the backroads of California that stand in for Maine. Davis isn't bad, and she's said to have liked the movie, since it allowed her to play an attractive girl at a time when the studios weren't giving her those kind of roles.

Watching Way Back Home and for contemporary fans the only reason it is at all memorable is that Bette Davis has a supporting role might make one wonder what people saw in it. Thinking about it you must remember in the height of the Roaring Twenties the American people elected Calvin Coolidge as president who had just such a cultural background as did the folks in Sundays At Seth Parker's. I'll bet Coolidge was a devoted listener.

Phillips Lord's Seth Parker is a local community leader and preacher of sorts in a rural Maine community. In this era of no mass media things like a Sunday gathering at the preacher with some community singing was not uncommon. By the way check out Joel McCrea's Stars In My Crown also about a rural preacher in a bit earlier an era in a different part of the country. Note the community singing there among the young people.

The main story in the film is that Lord and his wife Effie Palmer took in young Frankie Darro after his mom died and raised him as their own. Darro's real dad Stanley Fields has been in and out of trouble for years, but now he wants to lay claim to his kid.

Another subplot involves Bette Davis as a good girl being courted by Frank Albertson who as they said back in the day was born on the left side of the blanket. Mom never married dad and Davis's mom Sophie Lord won't have her daughter going out with him. Dorothy Peterson is Albertson's mom and she is shunned by a lot of the puritanical types in the town.

Let's say the two strands of the plot come together and it all works out for all except Fields.

I think I can safely say Way Back Home will not see a remake any time soon. As it is it's picture of a bygone era or one rustic curiosity, you take your choice.

This has the look of a silent film to the production, and with a decent story and a solid effort from Phillips Lord, is actually quite watchable. He adopts the young "Robbie" (Frankie Darro) after his brute of a father goes AWOL. Together with his wife (Effie Palmer), they soon come to love the lad, but a neighbourly dispute prompts the return of "Rufe" (Stanley Fields) to reclaim his son - despite the protestations of just about everyone else? Meantime, the young man's friend "Mary Lucy" (Bette Davis) is having family troubles of her own as her father will not let her see her beau "David" (Frank Albertson). Can they navigate the difficulties ahead find happiness? Davis (more especially, her big eyes) features quite sparingly; the film really belongs to an engaging performance from Lord as the decent family man determined to do what is right. The production is very basic. The camera work isn't helped by the editing (or is it the other way round?) but some work has gone into the characterisations and the dialogue is sparse enough to let the imagery do most the work - culminating in quite an entertaining buggy chase with some fisticuffs! No, it's not a film you are ever likely to recall watching afterwards, but it is quite fun and offers us a glimpse of rural American life in the 1920s.

Life on the Farm and Hill Folk in General have Always been Good and mostly Innocent Entertainment for ever. Ma and Pa Kettle, Francis the Talking Mule, The Real McCoys, The Beverly Hillbillies, The Waltons, Etc.

This Dusty Antique is No Exception. Even before making it to the Screen it was a Popular Radio Show. The Film Version is a Homey, Tear-Jerker that is Livened Up with a lot of Songs and some Homespun Humor.

The Talkies were often over Burdened with Music and Songs feeling out the New Technology for this and that to See what Audiences Liked and of Course because Everyone Likes a Tune or two.

In this one there may be a Tune too Many but what is here are some Classic Sing-A-Longs that Raise the Spirit more than they make the Toe Tap. The Two Intertwining Stories are Emotional to Say the Least.

One is the Foster Son Raised by the Farmers that They obviously Love and He Loves Them. His Real Father Abandon Him for 10 Years, an Alcoholic and really Bad Guy, is back an Up to No Good.

The Second is where Bette Davis comes in. She Plays the Daughter of a Bigot (with a Whip) trying to keep Her from Dating a "Bastard Child", for Pre-Code enthusiasts.

Overall, it is a Product of its Time, and the Messages and Good Feelings that this Produce are for the Ages. It also Contains some Interesting, Supporting, Comedy Relief Characters. Heartwarming and Recommended.

This film gets off to a very slow start with a scene where an old New England farmer drives a tax accountant from the city nuts with his convoluted tales of bartering and swapping; being an accountant, he just wants the numbers. This went on so long, I almost gave up before the movie got underway, but I'm glad I stuck with it. It's not a great story, and it's certainly not what you'd call a Bette Davis film--she's a secondary character.

What it does do very well is to depict a rural American life that is long gone--listening in on the party line, sharing preserves with the neighbors, a taffy pull, and especially singing. The folks all gather at the preacher's house to sing the traditional American standards of the day, accompanied by the preacher's wife on a pump organ: "Love's Old Sweet Song," "Put On Your Old Grey Bonnet," "Seeing Nellie Home," and the like. I imagine these are mostly forgotten today, and it's nice to see them preserved in a relatively realistic context such as this. An unexpected pleasure.