sol1218 A bit corny in its attempt to show how capitalism works when it isn't corrupted by heartless unsavory and greedy corporate criminals."Hometown Story" has to do with defeated local state senator Blake Washburn, Jeffrey Lynn, who's so embittered over his being turned out of office that after going back to his old job as editor of the Fairfax Herald decides to become a crusader against corporate corruption. Which in reality is attacking his opponents the new state senator McFarland, who defeated him, fathers business.A angry young man with a chip on his shoulder Blake gets so involved in his anti-capitalistic crusade against old man John McFarland, Donald Crisp, over his sons defeat of him in the state elections that he completely overlooks the fact that the plant that he owns is the cleanest most environment-friendly and best run in the state. This make a now frustrated Blake turns his guns, or editorial, against every big business in the country who makes a profit regardless if it's done honestly or not! Trying on Blake's part to create a peoples revolution against big business/capitalism. This mindless action by Blake in 1951, at the hight of the Cold War, could well have had him both arrested and tried by the FBI and US Justice Department for treason!Blake even though a likable guy is so obsessed with getting re-elected that he turns everyone who knows him like his fiancée Janice and best fiend reporter Slim Haskins, Marjorie Reynolds & Alan Hale Jr, against him. This leads Slim to almost end up almost punching him out in a confrontation he has with Balke in his office. It takes a conversation that Blake has with John McFarland to fills the hot-headed editor in with what capitalism did in making America the great country that it is today. Later the near tragic accident that almost killed Blake's sister Kathy, Melinda Portman, and McFarland rescue of her that turned him in his negative ideas of capitalism around. Kathy trapped in a coal mine collapse, together with her new puppy Rags, painfully showed Blake the light as the forces of capitalism and the free market quickly and efficiently swung into action. Old man, and business tycoon, McFarland using all the earth moving equipment that he had at his disposal ended up saving little Kathy's and her dogs life. In the end Blake now finally saw what capitalism had to offer the common working man and woman, and it was good. This all caused Blake to changed his mind as he became the biggest supporter of the capitalist system in the state. Rewriting and reediting all the bad things and press that ever said or wrote about big business making big bucks Blake now sees how important the benefits of capitalism is for the average working man and woman as well. Now with Blakes support all those big bucks will in the end help those, like his sister Kathy, who at first didn't seem to get, or benefit from, them. A bit condescending for my tastes in how great it is for corporations to make obscene profits which, we could only hope, in return helps all of us.P.S Look for a young and scintillating Marilyn Monroe in the film in a bit part as sexy and unavailable, to at least the overly friendly Slim Haskins, Iris Martin. Iris' tight fitting sweaters are enough to make me want to get a job at the Fairfax Herald regardless of what I'll be paid in wages just so I can even get lucky enough to buy Marilyn a cup of coffee and have a chance to talk to her.

kcweber The cover of this DVD caught my eye as I was walking by the bargain bin. Being a Marilyn fan I was caught by the large "Starring Marilyn Monroe" on the cover along with an equally large photo of a young Marilyn. I decided for $3.99 it was worth buying.I'm not sure if this constitutes a "spoiler" or not, but Marilyn is in 3 scenes and speaks 3 1/2 (maybe 4) lines of dialog. Not exactly what I'd call a "starring" role. But then, she is wearing tight sweaters in her scenes, so I wasn't totally disappointed (there, I said it).It was also nice seeing The Skipper (Alan Hale Jr.) wearing something other then a blue shirt and a captain's hat.Being only about an hour long (it was the first half of a double feature, the other half being a James Cagney film), I didn't feel like I had wasted time seeing the movie. In fact, the story really wasn't that bad, the packaging was just a little misleading.

Dale Steenhoven Home Town Story, 61 minutes long, is about a defeated State Senator, Blake Washburn, (played by Jeffrey Lynn) who comes home with quite an electoral chip on his shoulder, to lick his wounds, feel sorry for himself, and wallow in his bitterness. His bitterness spreads to others. He's not above punching a guy for joking about the election, and even his old friends are likely to be met with a cold shoulder. He wants to get married along the way to long-suffering fiancé Janice Hunt(Marjorie Reynolds), if he can ever get his priorities right.Washburn takes over his uncle's newspaper, and takes on big business as an enemy of the people, blaming corporations, and in particular, manufacturer MacFarland, for his political defeat. Slim Haskins, (a young Alan Hale, Jr. of Gilligan's Island fame, with his infectious laugh), his best friend and lead reporter, grows increasingly frustrated at Washburn's politicized agenda.When tragedy strikes, and Washburn's little sister Katie (Melinda Plowman) enters an old mine to retrieve her new puppy and becomes the victim of a terrible cave-in, Washburn must re-examine his views. A valuable message benefits this film: if no one makes a profit, no one will be profited. Other lessons are obvious: kindness is a great trait; don't play the blame-game, and have the right priorities.Fans will enjoy young Marilyn Monroe's presence in her supporting role as Iris Martin who works in the Herald newspaper office. In 1951 Home Town Story, she already exhibited all of the traits the world has become fascinated with: the breathless speech, the Monroe walk and those sweaters! Monroe has a small but very amusing and memorable role in the picture, but you'll find her picture on the cover. Out of 61 minutes, Marilyn is only present in approximately 1 minute and 40 seconds.This film was never released commercially.

ma-cortes An ex-politician called Blake Washburn (Jeffrey Lynn) and now an ambitious journalist blames a manager and Senator McFarland (Donald Crisp) for election as a senator but he was defeated . Then he denounces the big business in a newspaper called ¨The Herald¨ . He confronts his enemy by means of news , complaining about the profits melon and excessive richness of stockholders . At the newspaper works a gorgeous secretary called Iris (Marilyn Monroe) . When an unfortunate fact happens , his small sister is trapped into a mine , Washburn ought to examine his point of views and consider the profits to the customer .The film contains social critical , drama and a little bit of comedy . The picture is short time , one hour approximately , for that reason is quickly seen and isn't boring . This is one of a handful of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer productions of the 1950-1951 period whose original copyrights were never renewed and are now apparently in Public Domain . It appears notorious secondary actors as Donald Crisp (How green was my valley), he makes an intelligent speech about profits . And , of course , Marilyn Monroe , before becoming famous with Niagara (1953) she acted in various roles as a blonde sexpot secretary . Marilyn Monroe was often expected to provide her own wardrobe , in fact , the sweater with the grey body and black sleeves that she wears worn previously in Fireball (1950) and in the final scene in All about Eva (1950). The motion picture was regularly directed by Arthur Pierson . Rating : passable and entertaining.