BY LEE PFEIFFER
Kino Lorber has released director King Vidor's sultry swamp-based drama "Ruby Gentry" on Blu-ray. The film is the kind of steamy, swamp-based drama that could best be described as "God's Little Acre" by way of Tennessee Williams. The 1952 production would seem to derive from some paperback novel but, in fact, was written directly for the screen. Jennifer Jones plays the titular character, a sultry young woman who had the misfortune of being born on the wrong side of the tracks in the otherwise posh little community of Braddock, North Carolina. Ruby's "career" is working the hard scrabble life of a deckhand on her father's fishing vessel. She's a seasoned hunter and can wield a rifle with precision, necessary ingredients if you grow up on the edge of a swamp. At home, she has to contend with the sexism of low expectations by her blue collar parents and has to endure the psychotic ramblings of her religious fanatic brother, Jewel (James Anderson), who warns her that her pent-up sexual desires will lead her to damnation. When we first see Ruby, those sexual desires are about to be satiated with the return home of her boyfriend Boake Tackman (Charlton Heston), who has just come back from living five years in South America studying methods of cultivating land that has been deemed impossible to irrigate. Ruby doesn't waste any time getting down to business with Boake, who she presumes will marry her and get her away from her wretched lifestyle. After all, he is from the right side of the tracks, the son of a prominent judge. However, Boake has some distressing news to break: he is already engaged to a local, prim-and-proper rich girl, the result of an arranged marriage between the two families. It's clear that Boake's heart (and lust) are all devoted to Ruby, however. Ruby makes it clear that she won't serve the rest of her life as Boak's mistress. She ends up in an improbable marriage to a local rich man, Jim Gentry (Karl Malden), despite their significant age difference. Jim is a decent, devoted fellow- and he's also the richest man in town. Before long, he is sweeping Ruby off to exotic ports of call and exposing her to cultural wonders and sophisticated tastes. When they finally return to Braddock, Ruby has transformed from tom girl into a high-fashion, Grace Kelly-type. Her joy is short-lived, however, when Jim dies in a tragic accident while the couple is boating. The local population subjects her to a cruel rumor campaign, insinuating that she murdered Jim to get his money. There is also a suspicion that she was motivated by resuming a sexual relationship with Boak, with whom she openly flirted even after getting married.
Ruby proves to be a strong, powerful woman. Instead of moving away or pleading with people to believe her side of the story, she engages in a detailed study of the businesses she has now inherited. Turns out Jim, as a local rich man, had loans out to some of the very businessmen who have been tormenting her. She utilizes every loophole imaginable in the contracts to call in the loans on short notice, thus causing many prominent businesses to fold and forcing people out of jobs. Among her victims is Boak, who has financed his major irrigation business with a loan from Jim Gentry. Her tactics cause panic among the locals and result in a scenario in which she and Boak are hunted in the swamp like human prey.
The most refreshing thing about "Ruby Gentry" is that, despite working under the restrictions of the old Hollywood production code, Ruby never apologies for her blatant love of sex or her cruel tactics used to wreak vengeance on the people who judged her so badly over the course of her life. She is a sympathetic character, but only to a point. Her willingness to punish the innocent as well as the guilty sets her apart from most major female screen protagonists of the era. Likewise, Boak is less than a knight in shining armor. It's clear he loves Ruby but he doesn't possess the moral fortitude to rebel against social conventions so that he can be with her on anything but a surreptitious basis. Jennifer Jones, already a major star for a decade, ignites the screen with the kind of edgy performance that must have raised eyebrows back in the day. Vidor ensures she is clad in tight-fitting shirts and jeans, thus causing every man around her to openly lust for her. It's a terrific performance. Unfortunately, Charlton Heston, a relative newcomer to leading man status at the time, is encouraged by Vidor to occasionally act in an overly-theatrical style. When he embraces Ruby (which is often), it looks like he's posing for a still life painting. Ultimately, Heston would turn some of these mannerisms into assets but here he seems a bit out of place playing a small town jock. The supporting cast is all very good with Karl Malden and James Anderson particularly impressive. Vidor's assured direction, along with an intelligently-written screenplay, make this a thoroughly entertaining drama, engrossing from beginning to end.
The Blu-ray edition of "Ruby Gentry" looks very good indeed, up to Kino Lorber's usual standards. The disc includes a reissue trailer for the film which is strangely re-titled simply "Ruby", along with other trailers pertaining to films starring Jones and Heston that are available from Kino Lorber.
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