Claudio Carvalho In Braddock, North Caroline, the free-spirited and poor Ruby Corey (Jennifer Jones) is a sexy woman in love with Boake Tackman (Charlton Heston), who belongs to a former wealthy family that lost their land that is flooded. Ruby has lived during high-school with the wealthy businessman Jim Gentry (Karl Malden) and his wife Letitia Gentry (Josephine Hutchinson) that had unsuccessfully tried to teach etiquette to Ruby. Later she returned to the house of her father Jud Corey (Tom Tully) and her pious brother Jewel Corey (James Anderson) in the swamps. When Boake decides to marry the rich Tracy McAuliffe (Phyllis Avery), Ruby is courted by Dr. Saul Manfred (Bernard Phillips) but accepts to marry Jim that has recently widowed. The population of Braddock does not accept the marriage of Ruby and Jim. Then, Ruby dances with Boake in a club and Jim has a fistfight with Boake and calls Ruby a tramp. On the next morning, Jim apologizes with Ruby and they go sailing. However there is an accident and Jim drowns in the sea. Ruby is accused by the population of murdering Jim and she decides to revenge, using the money she inherited from Jim and foreclosing on the debts of the hometowns. But Ruby is still in love with Boake and her behavior will lead them to a tragedy."Ruby Gentry" is a melodramatic romance directed by King Vidor, the master of this genre. The melodrama is excessive, with a wild young woman in love with a popular young man in a conservative town. Her revenge against those that blame her is great but the conclusion is silly. Rubby working as a skipper of a fishing boat does not make sense for a woman with her strong personality (and money). My vote is six.Title (Brazil): "A Fúria do Desejo" ("The Fury of the Desire")

luckylavallee I really enjoyed this film---didn't know what the story was going to be beforehand, so it was really a great soap opera---the kind Hollywood used to make.Did you ever watch a film today and say to yourself, "That was predictable!" Well, I never once was able to say that about this film! It was all over the map, maybe not a great masterpiece..but very well acted and cast, and looked gorgeous.Jennifer Jones was one sexy lady! If you want to see a real actress at work, then this film is for you!Why can't Hollywood remake a film like this one---maybe it is too "adult" for today's audiences!

MARIO GAUCI With this I've started my tribute to Charlton Heston – being also one of six planned first viewings. The film isn't one of his most renowned efforts (coming also very early in his career), in spite of director Vidor's involvement; nonetheless, it's typical of the latter (whose twilight years were marked by a mostly lean period in his career) – a fairly risible romantic melodrama of the kind D.W. Griffith was making forty years earlier and which were concurrently being revitalized in the works of Tennessee Williams! RUBY GENTRY actually looks back to an earlier Vidor title involving a forbidden liaison sparking notoriety, death and revenge – DUEL IN THE SUN (1946), with which it shares leading lady Jennifer Jones – but, at least, that one was backed by Technicolor, an epic scope and a willing all-star cast; this, on the other hand, is unconvincing and rather half-hearted – though leading to a similarly absurd climax (with Heston and Jones attacked by the latter's religious fanatic brother).Following the death of his invalid wife (Josephine Hutchinson), meek but wealthy Karl Malden (who comes off best out of the main trio of stars) allows himself to be hitched by the tomboyish and backwoods Jones; the latter had herself been spurned by well-bred Heston, who prefers to marry into money for the sake of his dream project. However, the two lovers can't stay apart for long and the two men have a big fight over her at a party (which, curiously enough, takes place off-screen). The newlyweds set out to sea the next day in order to make up, but he's thrown overboard in an accident and drowns; the locals give Jones the cold shoulder (again, much of their abuse is intimated rather than shown), but she finds herself all of a sudden the beneficiary of Malden's vast fortune (owning shares in or else being owed by, it seems, the majority of the townspeople!); the last straw arrives when she willfully destroys Heston's irrigation enterprise. Ultimately, as I've said before, the film is shamelessly overstated – but, alas, not particularly entertaining: while the talent is clearly there, it's generally operating below-par.

Neil Doyle Once again, JENNIFER JONES has problems while stirring up raging hormones in every man within sight, even when she's married to a respectable but boring middle-aged man (KARL MALDEN), because they all know she's still lusting after the man who got away (CHARLTON HESTON).This is such over-baked, melodramatic corn that you can almost visualize it better as a silent film with tacky sub-titles while a woman with heaving bosom goes to pieces over a man she can't have because she is considered by the townsfolk to be an unworthy tramp and beneath the station of a well-to-do aristocrat.But the soundtrack isn't silent and does produce a haunting melody, "The Theme from Ruby Genty" which was very popular at the time of the film's release. That and the pulp fiction quality of the film, directed in over-the-top manner by King Vidor, gave it a camp quality that had people comparing it to "Duel in the Sun".It's strictly a minor melodrama with an overwrought Jennifer doing another interpretation similar to her Pearl Chavez.