The Little Minister

A mysterious & headstrong gypsy girl falls in love with THE LITTLE MINISTER called to pastor in a small Scots village. Soon her influence has him behaving in a most unclerical manner, with repercussions for the entire community.

Although sadly neglected & overlooked, this fine, sentimental film, based on a 1891 novel by Sir James M. Barrie, features excellent performances and superior production values. RKO lavished care & money to get the details just right; it is a fine example of how Hollywood films of the period could evocatively portray other times, other places.

Katharine Hepburn has one of her most fetching roles in the exuberant Babbie. Full of boundless energy & good humor, yet fiercely protective of those weaker & less fortunate than she, Hepburn turns in a beguiling, always entertaining, performance. While there is really no mystery as to the true identity of her character, this in no way hinders Hepburn from continually delighting her expectant audience.

In the title role, John Beal (born James Alexander Bliedung in 1909) had doubtless the best role of his career in this, his second, film. By underplaying his scenes, he holds his own with the vivacious Hepburn. Exhibiting real star quality, it is unfortunate that the good movie roles failed to materialize. Beal did quite a bit of work through the years on the stage and had a triumph in television's THE ADAMS CHRONICLES in 1976. John Beal died in 1997 at the age of 87.

A very fine supporting cast lends depth to the smaller roles: Andy Clyde as the lonely village policeman; Donald Crisp as the local doctor; Reginald Denny as a pompous army captain; Mary Gordon as an elderly indigent; Alan Hale as the community's repentant drunk; Lumsden Hare as a strict & powerful church deacon; Eily Malyon as a member of the aristocracy; Beryl Mercer as Beal's devout mother; and Dorothy Stickney as a fluttery maid.

Mention should be made of Max Steiner's lovely score, which incorporates old & familiar tunes.

A couple of historical notes: the Auld Licht (Scottish for 'Old Light') is mentioned many times in the film. This was the very conservative Church of Scotland, or Presbyterian Church in America, which had the allegiance of a majority of the Scots people. Barrie's original novel was of the Kailyard (Scottish for a small cabbage patch near a cottage) School of writing which had great favor in Scotland in the late 19th Century. This style featured highly idealized & sentimental representations of Scottish village life. Thrums in THE LITTLE MINISTER would certainly be a prime example.

• Romantic drama based on the novel and play by J. M. Barrie, from RKO and director Richard Wallace. Gavin (John Beal) is the new minister assigned to a church in a small Scottish town, circa 1840. His youth and slight frame belie his fiery rhetoric and impassioned sermons. The locals chafe under the oppressive rule of Lord Rintoul (Frank Conroy), and a mysterious gypsy girl (Katharine Hepburn) gives valuable intelligence about the Lord's attempts to suppress revolt using armed troops. Gavin falls for the gypsy girl, but she has a secret that may doom them both. Also featuring Byron Foulger in his film debut.

Judging by the description, I was reluctant to watch this, as it doesn't sound like something I'd care for, despite the presence of Hepburn (for whom I watched) and a couple of the supporting players. I was surprised to find myself enjoying this, and more than the average viewer, judging by the IMDb score. I thought Beal assayed his role perfectly, a combination of youthful self-righteousness and naive social blunderer, and that Hepburn was strong, funny, attractive, and vibrant. Among the others, Alan Hale was a stand-out as the hulking town drunk looking for redemption. This was the sixth, and so far final, film version of the Barrie work.

Hmmmmm .... strange one, this. Though it was made as early as 1934, it is no less than the FIFTH film adaptation of J.M. (Peter Pan) Barrie's stage play. It is a simple love story, set in a Scottish hamlet in early victorian times. RKO do the period feel very well indeed (check out the churchyard scene) and we can forgive a few shaky Scottish accents.

Gavin Dishart is the handsome young man who has just been appointed minister to the church at Thrums. He meets Babbie, a mysterious gypsy girl, and suddenly his life is transformed, and some of his values need to be reappraised.

"The fall of man through the temptation of woman" is Gavin's improvised sermon, and it encapsulates the theme of the film. The light coquetterie between Babbie and Gavin is very well done, and for the young generation of 1934 this must have been a terrific date movie. Max Steiner, RKO's contract composer, provides the score.

John Beal is ideal as the innocent young pastor, and Katharine Hepburn is impressive in a gentler, less stridently feminist role than was usual for her. She is memorable in the scene where she takes off at an athletic sprint, trailing skirts behind her. Beal is great in the scene where Gavin rues the missed kiss. Wearyworld, the unpopular policeman, adds a touch of wry humour: actor Andy Clyde appears to be a genuine Scot, though his Glaswegian accent is wrong for this lowland village. He is, one would guess from his style of delivery, a veteran of the music halls. Alan Hale Snr. is Rob Dow, the local drunk. Wise, humane Doctor McQueen is played admirably by Donald Crisp.

Memorable images include the zoom-in on the fast-disappearing "irresponsible, light-headed gypsy" which informs us that Babbie may amount to more than she seems, and the dour faces of the three elders at Mrs. Dishart's door.

Verdict - curious early Hepburn vehicle with nice period atmosphere

I have watched this movie twice in the last year, after the BBC unearthed it from some long forgotten vault. There's no question that it seems an oddity, archaic in style, tone and subject matter. But if the viewer can overcome these barriers, and in my case the poor sound quality of the version the BBC showed, it's an involving tale with engaging central performances from the principles (and pretty reasonable Scottish accents too) and fine support from stalwarts such as Alan Hale and Donald Crisp who became well known faces over the next 40 years. What also interests, is that the period the movie was made is now over 3/4 of a century ago, and we see the earlier period of the story (1840's) through the prism of the sensibilities of that era (1930's) a similar distance from our own times. The view of the relationships, between men and women, between people of faith and the church, between individuals and the community identity they are a part of, at first they seemed to be so alien, and then I saw that these are still areas of tension in society, perhaps for ever, and in seeing that, I felt lucky to get a glimpse into history, to two pasts as it were. This is something the 20th century and the invention of cinema are giving us for the first time in human history.

Its tender sentimentality is out of fashion today, of course, and has been for decades. But that's the point -- and that, for me, is the beauty of this film: it's positively luminous with an innocence and understated nobility that put our postmodern "edginess" to shame. I have to wonder if we've lost the capacity to experience and appreciate such rarefied sweetness of feeling. A sadly neglected film, with one of Katharine Hepburn's incomparable early performances -- radiant, charmingly quirky, and more emotionally expressive than a dozen Garbos. Sad, too, that co-star Robert Beal never crashed into the upper ranks of stardom; I saw tremendous potential in that performance.