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The Walls of Jericho (1948) Online

The Walls of Jericho (1948) Online
Original Title :
The Walls of Jericho
Genre :
Movie / Drama
Year :
1948
Directror :
John M. Stahl
Cast :
Cornel Wilde,Linda Darnell,Anne Baxter
Writer :
Lamar Trotti,Paul Wellman
Type :
Movie
Time :
1h 46min
Rating :
7.0/10
The Walls of Jericho (1948) Online

After County Attorney Dave Connors helps Julia Norman with her shiftless father, Jefferson Norman, she leaves Jericho, Kansas to college to study for a law degree.A few years later, Algeria Wedge, the new bride of Dave's best friend, Tucker Wedge, makes overtures and plays for Dave, much to the displeasure of Dave's hard-drinking wife Belle. Angered by Dave's rebuffs, Algeria induces the state political boss to back Tucker for a Congress race against Dave. Meanwhile, Julia has returned to Jericho, with her law degree, and she and Dave fall in love. But when Dave announces he won't run for Congress, she feels she is the reason and she takes a job in Kansas City. Tucker wins the election and he and Algeria go to Washington. Later, Tucker announces a run for the Senate and Dave decides to run against him. When Marjorie Ransome kills a drunk in self-defense, Julia returns to Jericho to work with Dave, now in private practice,on Marjorie's defense. The still-resentful Algeria moves to kill...
Complete credited cast:
Cornel Wilde Cornel Wilde - Dave Connors
Linda Darnell Linda Darnell - Algeria Wedge
Anne Baxter Anne Baxter - Julia Norman
Kirk Douglas Kirk Douglas - Tucker Wedge
Ann Dvorak Ann Dvorak - Belle Connors
Marjorie Rambeau Marjorie Rambeau - Mrs. Dunham
Henry Hull Henry Hull - Jefferson Norman
Colleen Townsend Colleen Townsend - Marjorie Ransome
Barton MacLane Barton MacLane - Gotch McCurdy
Griff Barnett Griff Barnett - Judge Hutto
William Tracy William Tracy - Cully Caxton
Art Baker Art Baker - Peddigrew

Gene Tierney was originally cast as Julia Norman.

"Lux Radio Theater" broadcast a 60 minute radio adaptation of the movie on March 8, 1955 with Cornel Wilde reprising his film role.

"The Screen Guild Theater" broadcast a 30 minute radio adaptation of the movie on January 27, 1949 with Cornel Wilde reprising his film role.


User reviews

Kelenn

Kelenn

The Walls Of Jericho finds both Cornel Wilde and Kirk Douglas as ambitious men and best friends who become estranged due to the behavior of their wives Ann Dvorak and Linda Darnell. Dvorak is an alcoholic and Darnell is a manipulator. The one thing that Darnell could not manipulate was an affair with Wilde who turned her down flat because of his friendship with Douglas. That sends Darnell into a quiet rage and her manipulations of people and events drives the film after that.

Also in the picture is Anne Baxter a female attorney in the ragtime era when such people were a rarity. She's the daughter of Henry Hull who was an attorney who Wilde admires, but who has fallen on bad times. She and Wilde hit it off professionally and personally, but when it looks like an affair might be in the offing, Baxter moves away.

However the arrest of young Colleen Townsend brings Wilde and Baxter together professionally. Townsend is charged with murdering town tough Barton MacLane and it will take some good lawyering to get her off. But that brings Darnell out who sees Wilde once again as a threat to her husband who is now a Congressman. And of course there's that ever present itch that Wilde has never scratched for her.

The Walls Of Jericho is a ragtime soap opera set in the Roosevelt-Taft era. The choice roles in this definitely are for the females with Darnell, Baxter, and Dvorak all making themselves memorable. In fact Baxter gets a chance at what is normally a male prerogative in the cinema, she gets to make a closing argument before a jury.

For reasons I don't understand this film is rarely seen and that does a disservice to the female cast members. This contains some of the best work any of the three leading ladies have done, especially Baxter. It will be a revelation if you get the chance to see this.
Hulore

Hulore

If you like watching movies that are easy to predict and formulaic...well, this film is not for you! The plot has many unusual twists and turns and it's one of the more unusual Hollywood films of the era.

The story is set in the town of Jericho. Dave Connors (Cornell Wilde) is a very decent man...working hard as a county prosecutor. And, he's easy to like and you find yourself rooting for the guy. The problem is that he's married to a nasty drunk (Ann Dvorak), but he makes the best of it. Even when an old lady friend of his returns to town and she clearly is in love with him and vice-versa, he resists the urge and avoids the woman because he is a faithful, decent man. In addition to this lady coming back to Jericho, an old friend (Kirk Douglas) comes with his gorgeous wife (Linda Darnell)...and she, also, seems very interested in Dave. So where is this all going to end? I bet you couldn't predict it in your lifetime unless you see the film!

I give this film high marks for originality and acting. While Wilde never rose to the upper echelons of actors, he was excellent here...as was everyone. An interesting and often overlooked film from Twentieth Century-Fox that deserves to be seen.
Skrimpak

Skrimpak

This is a very local soap opera in a small town in the midwest where everyone knows everybody and boredom is escaped by garden parties and rural balls with pianolas, while there is some trouble brewing under the surface. The county attorney Cornel Wilde is married to Ann Dvorak, an alcoholic, and the leading town nespaper man Kirk Douglas brings a bombshell beauty for a wife to town called Linda Darnell. She outshines everyone else and is the most dangerous of all. Gradually Anne Baxter sails up to challenge her in the last moment, but then this surprisingly good film has already advanced into high gear drama ending up in a murder trial.

At first you will suspect that the argument will be about drinking problems, especially as Kirk makes an issue of it in his paper and Cornel's wife never shows herself except when drunk. Neither couple has any children. Kirk is the one who at an early stage wonders why any man should ever marry a woman, and his question proves reasonable, when it is all too late.

Alfred Newman provides the music, always amazingly reliably excellent, and the environment of a small midwest very conventional town around 1910 is endearingly charming. You will be surprised to find such a small local world being able to come up with such a very intriguing drama.
Flamekiller

Flamekiller

Lawyer Cornel Wilde (Dave) wants to enter into the game of politics but his home life isn't perfect. This is because his wife Ann Dvorak (Belle) likes a drink and is nasty with it. His best friend is newspaper publisher Kirk Douglas (Tucker) who arrives in town with his scheming wife Linda Darnell (Algeria) and pretty soon the two of them become rival candidates. Rooky lawyer Anne Baxter (Julia) is also on the scene and very much part of the romantic thread. It's a very soap opera-ish story which meanders over several incidents with romance and courtroom drama and then it ends.

It's mediocre tosh really with a promising cast out of which only the women get meaty roles. Anne Baxter does well but we needed more scenes from Darnell and Dvorak. The men are pretty insipid goody-goody types.

Wilde should have joined his wife in her alcoholic binge-ing and then the film would have been way more interesting as we follow their drunken adventures in which they reek havoc and embarrass everyone in their local community. Sounds scarily familiar!