11/21/2022

Jean Simmons is just way too aloof for Robert Mitchum in this simple story of a wealthy lady who returns to a tiny Arkansan town "Progress" to bestow some largesse after their doctor saved her life many years earlier. When she arrives in her swanky automobile, she discovers that the doctor (Mitchum) is much younger than she was expecting and pretty soon the two are spatting like alley cats! When her gifts cause an inundation of strangers and freeloaders to the town akin to the gold rush, things all come to an head. There are some fun contributions from Arthur Hunnicutt - even when well-off, he just sits on his porch wearing his new suit and from Jimmy Hunt as the kid "Digger", but the performance from Simmons - perhaps epitomised by her rather severe hairstyle - is quite wooden and she really doesn't gel at all with her co-star. It's still quite watchable, though.