Way Back Home (1932)
The bucolic tearjerker Way Back Home is a spin-off of the popular radio series Seth Parker, with Phillips H. Lord, creator-star of the radio original, repeating his role as backwoods philosopher Parker. The plot centers on the romantic tribulations of Mary Lucy (Bette Davis, who received the… More
The bucolic tearjerker Way Back Home is a spin-off of the popular radio series Seth Parker, with Phillips H. Lord, creator-star of the radio original, repeating his role as backwoods philosopher Parker. The plot centers on the romantic tribulations of Mary Lucy (Bette Davis, who received the munificent sum of $300 per week for her performance!), and David Clark (Frank Albertson), who are being kept apart by their feuding parents. Armed with a surfeit of advice -- and, on occasion, a shotgun -- Seth Parker helps the lovers overcome a nasty local scandal during their journey to the altar. Deftly woven into the screenplay are such rural pastimes as taffy-pulling, community "sings," and barn dances. It's hard to believe that Phillips Lord, so convincing as the kindly Parker, was the same man responsible for the blood-and-thunder radio serial I Love a Mystery. In England, where the radio program was an unknown commodity, Way Back Home was retitled Old Greatheart. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi