Summary
A velvet-gloved grifter, Barbara Kaye, glides from Art-Deco skyscraper shadows into the Ozark haze, armed with lacquered charm and a surveyor’s secret: a subterranean ocean of coal worth rivers of black money. She weds lanky dreamer Tom Logan, whose father Paul—granite-faced patriarch—sniffs sulfur beneath her perfume and excises the heir from his will in a single quill-stroke. Marooned amid rusted milk pails and cicada monotony, Barbara’s hunger revives when Benton, her asphalt-scarred ex with prison ink still damp, slinks onto the farmstead like smoke from a still. One shotgun blast later, Paul lies fertilizing the maize, Tom is shackled behind stone, and Barbara—child on hip—flees back to the electric city, trailing guilt like torn silk. Conscience, that slow ember, finally sears; she testifies, topples Benton, and kneels in red clay while Tom—now exonerated—carries her past the sagging porch into a dawn uncertain yet alive.
Synopsis
City confidence woman Barbara Kaye visits the Logan farm in the Ozarks for the purpose of marrying Tom Logan for the fortune in coal beneath the Logan property. Paul, Tom's father, is suspicious of Barbara and disinherits Tom after his marriage. Angry with Logan and restless from the monotony of farm life, Barbara succumbs to the temptation of her former lover, Benton, and she returns to the city with the ex-convict and her daughter when Benton kills Paul Logan and Tom is imprisoned for the murder. Eventually, Barbara repents, confesses the truth, and is reconciled with Tom, who rescues his wife from the brutal Benton and takes his family back to the farm.
Director
Cast
