They Won't Forget

They Won't Forget

Director: Mervyn LeRoy Cast: Claude Rains
Claude Rains
, Edward Norris
Edward Norris
, Lana Turner
Lana Turner
, Allyn Joslyn
Allyn Joslyn
Mervyn LeRoy
They Won't Forget

They Won't Forget

Director: Mervyn LeRoy Cast: Claude Rains
Claude Rains
, Edward Norris
Edward Norris
, Lana Turner
Lana Turner
, Allyn Joslyn
Allyn Joslyn
Mervyn LeRoy

DVD (B&W / Full Frame)

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Overview

This hard-hitting Warner Bros. courtroom drama begins with the usual "Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is coincidental" disclaimer. Filmgoers with long memories, however, recognized Robert Rossen and Aben Kandel's screenplay as a blow-by-blow recreation of the Leo Frank-Mary Phagan case of 1915. Phagan, a 14-year-old employee in a Marietta, GA pencil factory, was found murdered. The bulk of the evidence pointed to a black janitor (who actually confessed to the crime years after the fact), but race-baiting Atlanta newspaper publisher Tom Watson decided to go after Leo Frank, the Northern Jew who owned the factory where Mary worked. "We can lynch a nigger any time," the politically ambitious Watson is alleged to have said, "but when do we get a chance to hang a Yankee Jew?" Thanks largely to Watson's "guilt by headline" campaign, and to Fulton County's cooperative solicitor general, Frank was found guilty and sentenced to death. Georgia Governor John M. Slaton, who all along smelled something fishy in the case, commuted Frank's case to life imprisonment (and was ruined politically as a result). En route to prison, Frank was abducted by a mob and lynched, an incident that boosted the prestige of the Georgia Ku Klux Klan. Aben Kandel dramatized this appalling miscarriage of justice in his novel Death in the Deep South, which served as the basis for They Won't Forget. In Mervyn LeRoy's film version, Lana Turner (in a star-making turn) plays Mary Clay, a teen-aged typing school student who dresses garishly and flirts with every man she meets. Mary is later found murdered; the last person to see her alive was her teacher, recently arrived Northerner Robert Hale (Edward Norris). Once more, a black janitor (played as a superstitious moron by Clinton Rosemond) is the most likely suspect, but the ambitious district attorney (Claude Rains) seems sincere in his belief that Hale is guilty. Once Hale is sentenced to death, the governor, played by Paul Everton, commutes his sentence, serene in the belief that, once his career is finished, he'll be able to retire peacefully (real-life governor Slaton did not go down so benignly). Except for the removal of the original case's anti-Semitic elements, They Won't Forget is stark, powerhouse filmmaking, one of the best of Warners' "social protest" films of the 1930s. It was remade as the 1987 TV movie The Murder of Mary Phagan starring Jack Lemmon, Kevin Spacey, Peter Gallagher, and Charles S. Dutton (as well as as the unsuccessful 1998 Broadway musical Parade).

Product Details

Release Date: 10/20/2009
UPC: 0883316213742
Original Release: 1937
Rating: NR
Source: Warner Archives
Presentation: [Full Frame]
Sound: [Dolby Digital Mono]
Language: English
Time: 1:35:00
Sales rank: 35,753

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits
Claude Rains Andy Griffin
Edward Norris Robert Hale
Lana Turner Mary Clay
Allyn Joslyn Bill Brock
Gloria Dickson Sybil Hale
Otto Kruger Michael Gleason
Linda Perry Imogene Mayfield
Elisha Cook Jr. Joe Turner
Cy Kendall Detective Laneart
Clinton Rosemond Tump Redwine
E. Alyn Warren Carlyle P. Buxton
Elisabeth Risdon Mrs. Dale,Mrs. Hale
Clifford Soubier Jim Timberlake
Granville Bates Pindar
Ann Shoemaker Mrs. Mountford
Paul Everton Gov. Thomas Mountford
Donald Briggs Harmon Drake
Sibyl Harris Mrs. Clay
Eddie Acuff Fred, the Soda Jerk
Frank Faylen Bill Price
Raymond Brown Foster
Leonard Mudie Judge Moore
Trevor Bardette Shattock Clay
Elliott Sullivan Luther Clay
Wilmer Hines Ransome Clay
John Dilson Briggs, the Detective
Harry Davenport Veteran
Edward McWade Veteran
Harry Beresford Veteran
Thomas Jackson Detective,Actor
George Lloyd Detective
Earl Dwire Jury Foreman
Jerry Fletcher Boys in Poolroom
Robert Cummings Sr. Whippel, the Banker
I. Stanford Jolley Courtroom Extra
Henry Hall Courtroom Extra
Tom Wilson Farmer
Forbes Murray Doughty, the Publisher
Tom Brower Turnkey
Harry Hollingsworth Turnkey
John Ridgely Actor
Al Bridge Actor
Adolph Deutsch Composer

Technical Credits
Mervyn LeRoy Producer,Director
Aben Kandel Screenwriter
Robert Rossen Screenwriter
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