Stellead
Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful
ShangLuda
Admirable film.
Cooktopi
The acting in this movie is really good.
bkoganbing
There are a lot of similarities between Romance Of The Limberlost and such films as Shepherd Of The Hills, Trail Of The Lonesome Pine, The Yearling, and Spitfire all set in some truly rural areas All of those films had the advantage of much bigger budgets from bigger studios than Romance Of The Limberlost which was an item from Monogram.Our main character is Jean Parker a free spirited lass who to escape the tyrannical bullying of her aunt Marjorie Main who has raised her since her mother died by going into the forest. She's got more critter friends than Elly Mae Clampett and a couple of human friends in Eric Linden who wants to be a lawyer and simple swamp kid Hollis Jewell.Main is fixing to marry Parker off to the much older and richer Edward Pawley whose puss was in many a Warner Brothers gangster flick of the Thirties. He's a mean brute looking for a nice young trophy wife.When Pawley is killed, it's Jewell who's arrested at the scene and it's Linden who defends him. During that trial a whole lot of hidden truths come out.Limberlost is the name for the swamp area in Indiana where the action takes place. Being from Monogram this didn't have too much in the way of production values. But the earnestness of the players overcomes a lot of that.Marjorie Main is almost a synonym for female rustic characters on screen. But the woman wasn't always comical as she was in the Ma&Pa Kettle series. She could do a dramatic turn with the best as witness by this film and her performance in that most urban of dramas Dead End as Humphrey Bogart's mother.Romance Of The Limberlost is worth a look.
drednm
Having seen and loved THE KEEPER OF THE BEES, I was happy to find another filmed version of a Gene Stratton-Porter story.This story centers of a young girl named Laurie (Jean Parker), raised in the limberlost (timbered swamp land in Indiana) by her bitter aunt (Marjorie Main). It seems Laurie's mother married the man the aunt wanted for herself.Laurie is a dreamy young lady who collects butterflies, reads books, and dreams of going to the city. One day she means a city lady lost in the swamp (Betty Blythe) and they become friends. She also meets a young man (Eric Linden) who has just graduated from law school.The local thug is also the area's richest man (Edward Pawley) who has his eye on Laurie since his wife is dead. He persuades the aunt to let him marry the girl by promising her money and clearing the mortgage debt on her shack. But Laurie has seen him beat a poor orphan boy he took in to work around his place. And she has fallen for the young lawyer.The aunt prevails by telling Laurie that her parents were never married and that the mother killed herself. She'll tell everyone if she doesn't marry the old man.At the joyless wedding, the townspeople stand around like statues because they are appalled the aunt has forced the girl into marriage with the brute. But the orphan boy changes everything when he threatens to shoot the old man.This is a low budget film from Monogram studio with lots of outside filming. Parker and Linden are excellent as the young couple. Former silent star, Betty Blythe, is warm as the caring lady. Pawley is appropriately snarky as the brute. Also good are Hollis Jewell as the orphan and George Cleveland and Sarah Padden as the store owners. But it's Marjorie Main as the grim aunt who turns in a great performance. There's not a whisper of humor in her Aunt Nora.Very enjoyable film with a good story and a solid cast.
Red-Barracuda
A young girl Laurie lives a life of misery with her cruel aunt in a small swamp village. The wealthiest man in the area makes a pact with the aunt so that he can take the girl's hand in marriage. This man is a drunken bully and old enough to be her father, so this is a pretty horrendous turn of events. Laurie has to rely on a few good souls to help her escape from this dreadful fate.Romance of the Limberlost is a very enjoyable melodrama. Its success is down to a simple but engaging story with good characterisation and a likable heroine. You really care for her predicament and this is ultimately what makes the film work. It's a feel-good romance at the end of the day. It also has a sweet scene in the forest where Laurie interacts with a selection of wild animals. It's a slightly surreal moment that adds a nice touch of the fantastic to proceedings.This is a very obscure film but it really shouldn't be. It's one of the better poverty row dramas that I have seen and is very accessible. It deserves a wider audience.
MartinHafer
This is an unusual story as it's about a young lady who grows up in the poor part of town. They say she lives around the swamp—but oddly, there is no swamp in the film and the folks mostly don't seem like the trashy sort of ill-educated folk they are portrayed as being. The girl in particular has lovely diction and manners—which is odd considering her humble life.Despite being very poor, the young lady (Jean Parker) is sweet and folks just seem to look after her and love her—that is except for her vicious aunt (Marjorie Main) who treats her more like Cinderella than her ward. Late in the film, the aunt tries to force the girl to marry Jed Corson—the meanest and most violent brute of a man. However, just before the wedding, Corson is murdered—and one of her friends is accused of the crime. It's up to a young lawyer who is in love with the lady to prove her friend is innocent.Despite its odd swamp setting and low budget, this film is enjoyable because of some really nice acting—in particular by The only part that I didn't like was the final scene in the courtroom—it just didn't seem realistic and didn't quite fit the rest of the movie. But, it did, however provide a nice 'feel good' ending. A rather schmaltzy film but one I still found very enjoyable…perhaps even because of its great sentimentality.By the way, the copy of this film you can download from the IMDb link is in rough shape. The opening credits are missing and the film skips a bit here and there.
