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| Alan Hale Jr. with the Adorable One |
When Blake Washburn (Jeffrey Lynn of The Law of the Tropics) fails in his reelection bid for his senatorial seat, he returns to his home town in Illinois where he is editor of the local paper. He is accused of using the paper to mount a campaign to get himself back into the Senate by attacking the winner, Bob McFarland (Hugh Beaumont of Money Madness). Will Blake allow his political ambition to get the better of him, and will anybody care? Home Town Story is a fairly dull, slight drama that plays more like a TV pilot than a theatrical movie. Lynn is not bad in the lead, and Alan Hale Jr. [The Cruel Tower] scores as his associate on the newspaper, as do Donald Crisp as McFarland's father and Barbara Brown as Blake's mother, but the movie's chief interest is in the brief appearances by the "Adorable One," Marilyn Monroe, as a secretary. Marjorie Reynolds, Richard Crane, and Byron Foulger are also in the cast.
Verdict: An early glimpse of the Adorable One, who had presence from the first. **.
Miss Monroe certainly paid her dues, playing that same secretary role in so many films. But always a bright spot in all those pictures...and in the comedies her timing was impeccable. Monkey Business is the secretary role I remember her in most fondly...
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Yes, and it has that hilarious line from Charles Coburn to secretary Monroe: "Find someone to type this."
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