The Trail of the Lonesome Pine (novel)
| The Trail of the Lonesome Pine | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Henry Hathaway |
| Written by | John Fox, Jr. (novel) Grover Jones Horace McCoy Harvey F. Thew (screenplay) |
| Produced by | Walter Wanger |
| Starring | Sylvia Sidney Fred MacMurray Henry Fonda |
| Cinematography | Robert C. Bruce W. Howard Greene |
| Distributed by | Paramount |
Release dates | February 19, 1936 |
Running time | 102 min. |
| Language | English |
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The Trail of the Lonesome Pine is a 1908 romance novel/western novel written by John Fox, Jr.. The novel became Fox's most successful, and was included among the top ten list of bestselling novels for 1908 and 1909. The novel has been adapted numerous times for both stage and screen, the most notable being a 1916 silent Cecil B. DeMille production and a 1936 adaptation helmed by Henry Hathaway. The 1936 version was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song for Louis Alter and Sidney D. Mitchell's "A Melody for the Sky." It was also awarded the Venice Film Festival Award for Best Color Film. Hathaway's version marked the first time the Technicolor process was used for outdoor filmmaking.
The novel was adapted into a successful stage play by Clara Lou Kelly, and was designated the "official outdoor drama" by the Commonwealth of Virginia in 1994. Since 1964, the play has been performed in an outdoor theater in Big Stone Gap, Virginia, the hometown of the novel's author. [1]
Plot summary
Set in the Appalachian Mountains at the turn of the twentieth century, a fued has been boiling for over thirty years between two influential mountain families: the Tollivers and the Falins. The outside world and industrialization, however, is beginning to enter the area. Coal mining begins to exert its influence on the area, despite of the two families fueds. Entering the area, enterprising "furriner" (foreigner) John Hale captures the attention of the beautiful June Tolliver, and inadvertantly becomes entangled in the region's politics.
Novel vs. film adaptations
The 1916 DeMille adaptation features an additional plot angle of Hale being a revenue agent seeking out "moonshiners." It also omitted much of the subplot concerning the Falin family. Henry Hathaway's 1936 version remains relatively faithful to the original novel. At least three other major film adaptations exist with varying degrees of faithfulness to Fox's novel.
Cast
| 1916 | 1936 | |
|---|---|---|
| Actor | Role | Actor |
| Charlotte Walker | June Tolliver | Sylvia Sidney |
| Thomas Meighan | Jack Hale | Fred MacMurray |
| Earle Foxe | Dave Tolliver | Henry Fonda |
| Theodore Roberts | Judd Tolliver | Fred Stone |
| not featured | Thurber | Nigel Bruce |
| not featured | Melissa | Beulah Bondi |
| not featured | Buck Falin | Robert Barrat |
| Milton Brown | Buddie Tolliver | George McFarland |
| not featured | Tater | Fuzzy Knight |
| not featured | Corsey | Otto Fries |
| not featured | Sheriff | Samuel S. Hinds |
| Hosea Steelman | Clay Tolliver | Alan Baxter |