Ruby Gentry (1952)

Watch this one with a friend so you'll have someone to laugh with. Jennifer Jones and Charlton Heston bring their over-acting talents to new heights in this fun melodrama. Watch how he violently drags her into his arms and the two disproportionate faces, his gigantic forehead and her softball size cheekbones almost fit together. Listen to his forced gravel of passion and her snarling lisp. Watch them face each other with the same odd posture of caved in waists and flat behinds. See them try to walk across a room without knocking anything over, shoulders swinging and arms flinging as they go.I would like to think this film would have been better with more subtle actors but even the story lacked credibility. We are told repeatedly that the town didn't like Ruby because she was born on the wrong side of the tracks, but I think her blatant public flirting and major anger issues might have had a lot to do with it.

This film has Oscar winners, Jennifer Jones, Charlton Heston, and Karl Malden in an unusual love triangle. Jennifer Jones plays Ruby, the girl from the wrong side of the tracks who can play with the men. She's in love with Heston's character but he can't marry her because of the scandal. But it doesn't mean that he doesn't lust after her. As a girl, she went to Mr. Gentry's home for a couple of years. Years later, Gentry (played by Karl Malden) invites her to help care for his sick wife played by Josephine Hutchinson. When she dies, he offers a proposal of marriage to Ruby. In the small town of Braddock, North Carolina, Ruby's marriage to beloved Gentry doesn't sit too well with the country club. Anyway, Heston's character is still pining for Ruby. I have to say that I liked Jennifer Jones in this role as Ruby Gentry. She allowed her to develop into a complex character than just a cardboard cut-up of the studio system.

I saw this when I was very young and it was quite risqué for 1952. Jennifer was beautiful and very seductive. The thought of a woman being shown on the screen engaged in seduction was far from the norm for my family. I went with my friend and was afraid to tell my Mother. I need to rent this and see if it still holds up after all this time. I'm sure Jennifer will as she was a wonderful actress. I love Charlton Heston because is a journeyman actor but he bugs me. He always seems to be the same person. Karl Malden is an actors actor and never gives a bad performance. The setting was typical of that time, poor girl seduces rich boy. The other one was rich girl falls for poor boy. Sure never happened in my life. What I remember most though was the music as It is so plaintive.. I have it downloaded and it is one of my favorites.

Charlton Heston is at the height of his hunk stage and played an unusual type, against his rugged, frontier persona. Jennifer Jones is sultry and moody through several decades, backed by the haunting "Ruby" theme. Richard Hyman's harmonica is a perfect compliment to the two lead character types. I think it is even more effective in black and white than it could ever have been in color. Perhaps this element underscores the black and white social mores of the era. This movie is the first to really make me believe Jennifer Jones character is principally an emotionally grounded person, touchable by others. I usually find her too self contained to feel deeply. I have seen this movie several times, and thoroughly appreciate it each time.