Peter McCrea will join us again Wednesday, Jan. 24 at 7 p.m. at the Easton Public Library for the next movie in this season’s film series. Peter will share stories about the delightful film classic, “Stars in My Crown,” starring his movie star father, Joel McCrea. This 1950 film is one of the best movies most people have never heard of and was one of Joel McCrea’s favorites.
Directed by noted auteur Jacques Tourneur, “Stars in My Crown” is a hard film to categorize. The movie was a commercial disappointment, and no wonder. MGM promoted it as a shoot-’em-up cowboy flick.
“Take your choice … Either I speak … Or my pistols do!” shouts the original movie poster. In reality, “Stars” is a gentle film that takes place in a small rural town in the South and has much more in common with John Ford’s “How Green Was My Valley” than any western.
When “Stars” was re-released a few years later, MGM tried a different tact. The new poster pictured Joel McCrea holding a Bible and proclaiming, “His whisper spoke louder than his 6-guns,” promoting the movie as “One of the fine family films of the year.”
No doubt most people who saw the movie back then loved it, and word of mouth helped the film turn a modest profit. One oft told but unconfirmed story suggests that 24 year-old Harper Lee took inspiration from the film when it played at the Monroe Theater in her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama, a decade before she wrote “To Kill a Mockingbird.”
Come join us on Jan. 24 when Peter McCrea will share behind-the-scenes stories, including one about the most important line in the film, saved from the cutting room floor by his famous dad!
