Young John Logan works on his father's farm in Kentucky, but yearns for something more. He decides he will go to New York City and seek fortune. His parents are against the move. His mother takes him to a church service where the preacher compares New York City to Sodom and Gomorrah. Logan relents, much to the relief of his parents and his neighbor, Jennie, who loves him. But Logan becomes frustrated on the farm, and again decides to leave. He promises Jennie he will return in a year. In New York, Logan gets a job with a toy manufacturer. His goal is to create a toy frog that will swim. Meanwhile, back on the farm, things are not going well for his parents, and Jennie continues to pine for him. A stranger arrives in town and shows interest in her. She rebuffs him by claiming she is married. Logan continues to work on his invention. Eight years pass. The Logans are about to be evicted from their farm. Logan returns, a wealthy man, but is unrecognizable. Even Jennie has a difficult time recognizing him. Logan's father, desperate for money, does not recognize his son, but sees him flashing money and decides to rob him. Logan returns to the farm and takes a room. His father follows him. (Since the film is available, I will not reveal the ending. But this is Happy Valley, after all.)
The film has a few implausible events. It's hard to believe someone would work on a toy frog that long. The stranger who is after Jennie is described as a "descendant of Judas Iscariot." We never find out who he is, or where he came from. He disappears from the film, only to pop up at the climax, making the finale a bit contrived. Also, eight years pass, yet no one seems to age. Still, I would recommend taking a look, mostly for two reasons: 1) Lillian Gish as Jennie, and 2) Robert Harron as Logan. Gish, cute-as-a-button as always, has plenty of close-ups and speaks volumes with her facial expressions. There is a wonderful little scene where she puts on a new hat, thinking this will keep Logan from going to New York. After he has left Kentucky, she takes his coat and hat and places them on a scarecrow, as a reminder. At the end of 365 days, she sits by her window, wearing dress and hat, waiting patiently for Harron ... who doesn't come. You can feel her pain. Harron, whose acting I appreciate more and more every time I see him, is perfectly cast as the boyish farmer who wants to spread his wings. His scenes with Gish are quite tender. (The two always had great onscreen chemistry). When he returns older (with a moustache, looking like John Gilbert) and wealthy, his entire posture changes to indicate he is now confident and self-assured. The change is not exaggerated, but subtle and effective. It is a shame he died a year later. It would have been interesting to see if he could have transitioned to sound. He would have been young enough to still play leading men, into the 1930s and early 1940s.
