Small Town Girl *** (1936, Janet Gaynor, Robert Taylor, James Stewart, Binnie Barnes) – Classic Movie Review 13,645  

Janet Gaynor, Robert Taylor, James Stewart, and Binnie Barnes star in the 1936 MGM black and white American romantic comedy film Small Town Girl.

Director William A Wellman’s 1936 MGM black and white American romantic comedy film Small Town Girl [One Horse Town] is based on the 1935 novel by Ben Ames Williams, and stars Janet Gaynor, Robert Taylor, Binnie Barnes, and James Stewart, along with Lewis Stone, Andy Devine, Elizabeth Patterson, Frank Craven and Edgar Kennedy.

Country girl Kay Brannan (Janet Gaynor) agrees to marry young playboy Robert ‘Bob’ Dakin (Robert Taylor), a socially prominent surgeon from Boston who is on a drunken binge. Bob’s parents are shocked because Bob was to marry socialite Priscilla Hyde (Binnie Barnes) in two weeks. What to do in the sober light of day when his posh fiancée Priscilla Hyde wants the marriage annulled? And what is Gaynor’s hick boyfriend Elmer Clampett (James Stewart) going to do?

This MGM romantic comedy drama has a contrived, old-fashioned plot, maybe, and Robert Taylor gives a rather bland performance as the young surgeon playboy. But the other main stars have a lot of charm (particularly James Stewart as Elmer Clampett), the expert character players are a delight (particularly Elizabeth Patterson as Ma Brannan and Lewis Stone as Dr Dakin), the stylishly glossy production is handled extremely smoothly and professionally, and Wellman directs smartly and imaginatively.

Overall, Small Town Girl is a success, little known and underrated.

The screenplay by John Lee Mahin, Edith Fitzgerald and the husband-and-wife team of Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich, is based on the 1935 novel by Ben Ames Williams.

On a $760,000 budget, it earned $1,605,000 and recorded a profit of $274,000.

Reworked by MGM as the musical Small Town Girl (1953), though it bears little relation to it other than the title.

Wellman and Gaynor reunited for A Star Is Born (1937).

Cast: Janet Gaynor, Robert Taylor, Binnie Barnes, James Stewart, Frank Craven, Elizabeth Patterson, Lewis Stone, Robert Greig, Charley Grapewin, Isabel Jewell, Andy Devine, Agnes Ayres, Dorothy Cooper, Edgar Kennedy, Mary Forbes, Nella Walker, Willie Fung, John Harron, Nora Lane, Walter Johnson, Drue Leyton, Joan Russell, Richard Carle, James Donlan, Frank Scully, Leonard Carey, George Breakston, Otto Fries, Ivan Simpson.

© Derek Winnert 2025 – Classic Movie Review 13,645

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com