''The Little Minister'' is a 1934 American drama film starring
Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Houghton Hepburn (May 12, 1907 – June 29, 2003) was an American actress in film, stage, and television. Her career as a Hollywood leading lady spanned over 60 years. She was known for her headstrong independence, spirited perso ...
and directed by
Richard Wallace. The screenplay by
Jane Murfin
Jane Murfin (October 27, 1884 – August 10, 1955) was an American playwright and screenwriter. The author of several successful plays, she wrote some of them with actress Jane Cowl—most notably '' Smilin' Through'' (1919), which was adapted ...
,
Sarah Y. Mason
Sarah Y. Mason (March 31, 1896 – November 28, 1980) was an American screenwriter and script supervisor.Vazzana, Eugene Michael (2001). ''Silent Film Necrology.'' McFarland,
Biography
Mason was born Sarah Yeiser Mason in Pima, Arizona. She a ...
, and
Victor Heerman
Victor Eugene Heerman (August 27, 1893 – November 3, 1977) was an English-American film director, screenwriter, and film producer.Vazzana, Eugene Michael (2001). ''Silent Film Necrology.'' McFarland, After writing and directing short comedies ...
is based on the 1891 novel and subsequent 1897 play of the same title by
J.M. Barrie
Sir James Matthew Barrie, 1st Baronet, (; 9 May 1860 19 June 1937) was a Scottish novelist and playwright, best remembered as the creator of Peter Pan. He was born and educated in Scotland and then moved to London, where he wrote several succe ...
. The picture was the fifth film adaptation of the works, following four
silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, when ...
versions. The original novel was the third of the three "Thrums" novels (a town based on his home of
Kirriemuir
Kirriemuir, sometimes called Kirrie or the ''Wee Red Toon'' ( gd, An Ceathramh Mòr; IPA: nˈkʰʲɛɾəvmoːɾ, is a burgh in Angus, Scotland. It reaches back to earliest recorded times, when it is thought to have been a major ecclesiastical ...
), which first brought Barrie to fame.
Plot
Set in rural 1840s
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
, the film explores labor and class issues while telling the story of Gavin Dishart, a staid cleric who is newly assigned to Thrums' Auld Licht church, and Babbie, a member of the nobility who disguises herself as a gypsy girl in order to interact freely with the local villagers and protect them from her betrothed, Lord Rintoul, who wants to keep them under his control. The townsfolk christen Dishart “The Little Minister” on his arrival because of his youth (this is his first parish) and his short stature. Initially the conservative Dishart is appalled by the feisty girl, but he soon comes to appreciate her inner goodness. Their romantic liaison scandalizes the townspeople, and the minister's position is jeopardized until Dishart's heroism stuns and transforms the hearts of the local villagers.
Cast
*
Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Houghton Hepburn (May 12, 1907 – June 29, 2003) was an American actress in film, stage, and television. Her career as a Hollywood leading lady spanned over 60 years. She was known for her headstrong independence, spirited perso ...
as Babbie
*
John Beal as Reverend Gavin Dishart
*
Alan Hale as Rob Dow
*
Donald Crisp
Donald William Crisp (27 July 188225 May 1974) was an English film actor as well as an early producer, director and screenwriter. His career lasted from the early silent film era into the 1960s. He won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor ...
as Doctor McQueen
*
Lumsden Hare
Francis Lumsden Hare (17 October 1874 – 28 August 1964) was an Irish-born film and theatre actor. He was also a theatre director and theatrical producer.
Early years
Hare studied at St. Dunstan's College in London.
Career
Hare appeared ...
as Tammas Whammond
*
Andy Clyde
Andrew Allan Clyde (March 25, 1892 – May 18, 1967) was a Scottish-born American film and television actor whose career spanned more than four decades. In 1921 he broke into silent films as a Mack Sennett comic, debuting in ''On a Summer ...
as Policeman Wearyworld
*
Beryl Mercer
Beryl Mercer (August 13, 1882 – July 28, 1939) was a Spanish-born American actress of stage and screen who was based in the United States.
Early years
Beryl Mercer was born to British parents in Seville on 13 August 1882.
Her father wa ...
as Mrs. Margaret Dishart, Gavin's mother
*
Billy Watson as Micah Dow
*
Dorothy Stickney
Dorothy Stickney (June 21, 1896 – June 2, 1998) was an American film, stage and television actress, best known for appearing in the long running Broadway hit ''Life with Father''.
Early years
Stickney was born in Dickinson, North Dakota, but ...
as Jean Proctor
*
Mary Gordon as Nanny Webster
*
Frank Conroy as Lord Milford Rintoul
*
Eily Malyon
Eily Malyon (born Eily Sophie Lees-Craston; 30 October 1879 – 26 September 1961) was an English character actress from about 1900 to the 1940s. She had a stage career in Britain, Australia and America before moving to Hollywood to perfo ...
as Lady Evalina Rintoul
*
Reginald Denny as Captain Halliwell
Production
Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Houghton Hepburn (May 12, 1907 – June 29, 2003) was an American actress in film, stage, and television. Her career as a Hollywood leading lady spanned over 60 years. She was known for her headstrong independence, spirited perso ...
initially rejected the role of Babbie, then reconsidered, against the advice of her agent
Leland Hayward
Leland Hayward (September 13, 1902 – March 18, 1971) was a Hollywood and Broadway agent and theatrical producer. He produced the original Broadway stage productions of Rodgers and Hammerstein's '' South Pacific'' and ''The Sound of Music''.
...
, when
Margaret Sullavan
Margaret Brooke Sullavan (May 16, 1909 – January 1, 1960) was an American stage and film actress.
Sullavan began her career onstage in 1929 with the University Players. In 1933, she caught the attention of film director John M. Stahl and had ...
was offered the role. The film was budgeted at $650,000, which at the time was considered a high amount, and much of it was spent on exterior shooting in California's Sherwood Forest and
Laurel Canyon
Laurel Canyon is a mountainous neighborhood in the Hollywood Hills region of the Santa Monica Mountains, within the Hollywood Hills West district of Los Angeles, California. The main thoroughfare of Laurel Canyon Boulevard connects the neighb ...
and on the elaborate village set constructed on
RKO Forty Acres
RKO Forty Acres was a film studio backlot in the United States, owned by RKO Pictures (and later Desilu Productions), located in Culver City, California. Best known as Forty Acres and "the back forty," it was also called "Desilu Culver," the "RKO ...
back lot
A backlot is an area behind or adjoining a movie studio containing permanent exterior buildings for outdoor scenes in filmmaking or television productions, or space for temporary set construction.
Uses
Some movie studios build a wide variety of ...
. (It later was used in a number of films, including
Laurel and Hardy
Laurel and Hardy were a British-American Double act, comedy duo act during the early Classical Hollywood cinema, Classical Hollywood era of American cinema, consisting of Englishman Stan Laurel (1890–1965) and American Oliver Hardy (1892–19 ...
's ''
Bonnie Scotland
''Bonnie Scotland'' is a 1935 American film directed by James W. Horne and starring Laurel and Hardy. It was produced by Hal Roach for Hal Roach Studios. Although the film begins in Scotland, a large part of the action is set in British India. ...
''). It was RKO's most expensive film of the year and the most expensive film in which Hepburn had appeared.
[Richard Jewell & Vernon Harbin, ''The RKO Story.'' New Rochelle, New York: Arlington House, 1982. p79]
The soundtrack includes the traditional Scottish tunes "The Bonnie Banks O' Loch Lomond," "Comin' Thro' the Rye," and "House of Argyle." The 3-CD set ''Max Steiner: The RKO Years 1929-1936'' includes 10 tracks of incidental music that Steiner composed for the film.
The film held its world premiere at
Radio City Music Hall
Radio City Music Hall is an entertainment venue and Theater (structure), theater at 1260 Sixth Avenue (Manhattan), Avenue of the Americas, within Rockefeller Center, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Nicknamed "The Showplac ...
in New York City.
Reception
In his review in ''The New York Times'', Andre Sennwald described the film as "a tender and lovingly arranged screen edition of Sir James's rueful little Scottish romance...in its mild-mannered and sober way, ''The Little Minister'' proves to be a photoplay of genuine charm."
The film was popular but its high cost resulted in a loss of $9,000
and contributed to Hepburn's reputation as "box-office poison."
Leonard Maltin
Leonard Michael Maltin (born December 18, 1950) is an American film critic and film historian, as well as an author of several mainstream books on cinema, focusing on nostalgic, celebratory narratives. He is perhaps best known for his book of fil ...
gives ''The Little Minister'' three and a half out of four stars, calling the film “charming“ and Hepburn “radiant“.
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Little Minister, The
1934 films
1934 drama films
American drama films
American black-and-white films
Films scored by Max Steiner
American films based on plays
Films based on works by J. M. Barrie
Films directed by Richard Wallace
Films set in Scotland
Films set in the 1840s
RKO Pictures films
Films with screenplays by Jane Murfin
1930s English-language films
1930s American films