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Cult Review
Archivist John
Senior Editor
So, The Home Towners from way back in 1928… is it a must-see today? Probably not for everyone. If you're into those really old dramas, the ones where the plot hangs on a single misunderstanding and grand gestures, then maybe. But if you need snappy dialogue and plots that twist every five minutes, you'll probably find this a bit of a slow burn, even for its runtime.
Robert McWade plays P.H. Bancroft, the meddling friend. Oh, he meddles. He’s just convinced Vic Arnold (Richard Bennett) is being led astray by Beth Calhoun (Doris Kenyon). Bancroft pops up everywhere, always with this little look that screams 'I know something!' — even when he probably doesn't quite have all the facts. His character, for better or worse, is the whole drama machine of this film. You can practically feel the movie trying to make him out as a well-meaning pal, but mostly he just feels like a nuisance. 🙄
Doris Kenyon as Beth has such a tricky spot. Is she sweet? Is she calculating? The film, for a good stretch, wants you to wonder. There's this one moment she’s sitting so still, but the camera just holds on her face. Like we’re meant to dig deep and find something sinister in her calm, you know?
Richard Bennett's Vic, bless his heart, seems genuinely smitten. He’s a bit oblivious, sure, but his devotion is pretty clear. He gets dragged through the mud quite a bit, but mostly just looks a bit bewildered by it all.
The film often lingers on reaction shots. One scene, Bancroft is talking about Beth, and Vic’s face just goes from confused to offended, but it takes a good five seconds to get there. In a modern movie, that’d be a quick cut. Here, you get the full slow-burn experience of his emotional processing. It sort of feels like someone took a long pause just before pressing play again, waiting for the emotions to really sink in.
I remember this one shot, Beth is wearing a dress with these tiny, almost iridescent beads. It just caught the light in a peculiar way during a tense conversation, totally irrelevant to the plot, but it stuck with me. You can tell they put a lot of effort into the costumes, even for just a brief, blink-and-you-miss-it detail.
The whole 'is she a gold-digger?' thing feels so dramatic and, well, old. It’s a trope that’s been done to death, but seeing it play out here, it almost feels quaint. Like, couldn’t they just talk it out? The misunderstandings pile up, and you just want someone to sit down and have a frank conversation instead of all the dramatic glances and whispered accusations. It’s similar to the kind of societal pressure you see in Mary's Lamb, where reputations are everything.
The climax involves a big reveal, naturally. And it's handled with all the theatricality you’d expect from this era. Everyone's in a room, accusations fly, and then a piece of evidence finally clears things up. The resolution felt a little too neat after all the fuss. Like, *poof*, all better now. But that's the charm, I suppose, of these older stories.
Watching The Home Towners today, it’s less about the plot twists and more about seeing how these stories were told a century ago. It’s a snapshot of a particular kind of drama, where social standing and perceived intentions could cause immense chaos. It’s not going to blow your mind, but it’s a curious watch for those who appreciate cinema's earlier days. It just is what it is. And sometimes, that's enough. 🎬
IMDb 5.8
1914
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