Why so much hype?

Purely Joyful Movie!

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

As a supporter of free enterprise, I agreed with Donald Crisp and wanted to knock Lynn's block off due to the chip on.his shoulder. He lòoked far too old to.have a young sister- I'd have made her his niece living with her grandmother.

"Home Town Story" is a frustrating B-movie from MGM. It has a few excellent story ideas but manages to execute them quite poorly. Despite this, it is watchable.Jeffrey Lynn plays Blake Washburn--an ex-senator with a serious chip on his shoulder. He's mad he lost the re-election and is bent on punishing the guy responsible. So, as the new editor of a newspaper, he's bent on attacking the MacFarland family business--because the factory owner's son beat Washburn in the election! If Washburn sounds like a petty jerk, then you are correct. In addition to using the paper for his personal vendetta, he seriously ignores his incredibly long-suffering fiancé. Therein lies much of the problem with the film--the main character is unlikable and you really want a piano to fall on his head (or some equally horrid accident). Additionally, the film has a very odd message about economics and capitalism that COULD have been excellent had the message not been hammered home so poorly. Overall, despite the MGM glitz and a few good actors (I like the Washburn kid), it's a film that needed more time to allow the plot to move realistically instead of being so rushed and contrived.

Arthur Pierson, I forgive you. Now that I've finished watching Home Town Story, and figured out the back story, I'm having such a good laugh, tears are coming down my eyes. Actually, it's the viewer commentaries that deserve the credit for the latter.However, midway through, I would have strangled you, if you were still alive. It was starting to look like a real insult to journalism, a hatchet job on the so called liberal establishment press. There is nothing realistic about what this Blake Washburn character does, namely putting personal opinion pieces on the front page, along with opinionated headlines. No publisher would put a failed politician as the executive editor of a paper where he would be covering the guy who defeated him. The John Hale, Jr. character makes amends for this travesty, submitting his resignation, like a true journalist. I had to turn this off and pick it up the next day, I was so ticked off. I spent the day mystified about how such a simplistically propagandist film could come out of Hollywood. It was 1951, the height of the Communist witch hunt in Washington, started by a Congressman from California named Richard Nixon. So perhaps this film was made to appease the right wing gods who were throwing Hollywood writers and actors in jail. I was having trouble imagining someone actually paying money to watch this in a movie theater, even as a B movie second show. I just didn't make sense. One viewer may have hit the nail on the head when he likened it to the movies he had to watch in 7th grade social studies class. For this movie was actually produced by, believe it or not, General Motors, along with something called Wolverine Productions. I found this on the TCM site, but "The Deputy"'s 2004 review on IMDb has this detail: "The film production was supervised by the head of GM's film division, John K. Ford. The film was meant as corporate propaganda for GM ...." OK, now things are starting to make sense. Sure, as propaganda (or as Americans put it, PR) the movie is a bit obvious and clunky. But, hey, capitalism is entitled to pat itself on the back, as long as it's paying the tab -- about $200,000. It's not clear where this was actually shown back in the Fifties. Social studies classes? Hey, with Marilyn Monroe in a tight sweater, the guys are going to stay awake! Could that be the clever reason she's in there? The script is pretty bad, but acting by Hale, Donald Crisp and Monroe saves the film. Of course, the great irony is that Monroe's brief appearance has given this stinker -- which, for all we know, may never have been seen in the Fifties outside of GM's boardroom -- immortality. None of us would be watching this today if it weren't for her, except perhaps on a Christian propaganda station. I wonder if they are, indeed, running it? After all, it's not every day you get to see Marilyn Monroe playing a vestal virgin.

This certainly has to be rated as one of the least interesting movies I've ever seen. I don't think I would go as far as to call it bad - simply dull would be a better word for it. It features passable performances from most of the leads (including a limited role for Marilyn Monroe as a sexy secretary with only a handful of lines) but aside from some suspense about the fate of little Katie in the last 20 minutes or so there really wasn't much here to hold my attention.The movie starred Jeffrey Lynn as Blake Washburn - a one term state senator who's defeated for re-election and can't let it go. In fact he's the poster boy for sore losers, ready to pick fights with anybody who brings his defeat up, and convinced that the people were tricked into voting for his opponent. Frankly, he was a thoroughly unlikable character. Returning to his hometown, he uses his new position as editor of the family-run newspaper to criticize the man who beat him and to take on a variety of crusades, most notably against excess corporate profits. In that sense, the movie perhaps had some potential to provide a degree of social analysis, except that there was always question as to whether Washburn really cared about these issues, or whether he was simply using the paper as a platform to launch another election bid. In the end, the movie actually becomes a celebration of the system, as Washburn learns why profits are necessary, and how a company's profits benefit us all.I found this most interesting for the very early look at Monroe, as well as for a look at a not bad piece of work from a young Alan Hale, Jr., who I know best as the Skipper from "Gilligan's Island." One thing really made me curious - how could Lynn play the brother of young Katie, played by Melinda Plowman, who got a few years as a bit player out of an acting career? Lynn would have been 42 when this was made, Plowman about 10. The family relationship was not at all believable. 4/10