#ruby gentry

Charlton Heston being slapped or attacked by women in the movies (mostly for being an asshole) since he was seventeen years old in his very first film “Peer Gynt”. 

Peer Gynt, 1941, with Rose Andrews Ruby Gentry, 1952, with Jennifer Jones The Private War of Major Benson, 1955, with Julie Adams Three Violent People, 1956, with Anne Baxter The Pigeon That Took Rome, 1962, with Elsa Martinelli Counterpoint, 1967, with Kathryn Hays

RUBY GENTRY (Dir: King Vidor, 1952).

A ripe slice of Southern Gothic with Jennifer Jones as gun toting, skinny jeans wearing, swamp wildcat Ruby; using her womanly wiles to ensnare local stud Charlton Heston and marrying wealthy, lonely chump Karl Malden.

Jones is literally wild in the part of Ruby and is undoubtedly the movie’s greatest asset. Heston is less effective in a role perhaps slightly underwritten and which does not particularly play to his strengths as an actor. Malden, by contrast, is fantastic in this sort of thing (see ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ and ‘Baby Doll’) and demonstrates why he was one of Hollywood’s most in-demand character actors.

Admittedly, there is, probably, an unpleasant, deeply misogynistic subtext about powerful women in this movie as Ruby, with her new found wealth, wreaks revenge on the townsfolk who hold her in distain and upon the man she thought was in love with her. A better writer than I would go into this in greater depth (and if anyone wishes to, please do so in the comments below - polite, serious discussion is welcome and encouraged!)

In spite of this, I must confess, I love a 50s melodrama, where what was once torrid and sexy has become overblown and camp. Ruby Gentry is hopelessly dated, but that is not to suggest that it isn’t also wholly entertaining if you are in the right mood!

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