THE LITTLE MINISTER
US, 1934, 110 minutes, Black and white.
Katharine Hepburn, John Beal, Alan Hale, Donald Crisp, Lumsden Hare, Andy Clyde, Beryl Mercer, Reginald Denny.
Directed by Richard Wallace.
The Little Minister is based on a play by J.M. Barrie, best known for Peter Pan and plays such as Mary Rose.
It is a star vehicle for Katharine Hepburn who had just won an Oscar for her performance in Morning Glory. She was at the beginning of a very long career with three more Oscars, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, The Lion in Winter and On Golden Pond almost fifty years after The Little Minister. She portrays a gypsy girl in the Scottish highlands who becomes entangled with the new minister. He is played by John Beal who also had a long career from the early 1930s to the 1990s. He was in films in the 1930s again with Katharine Hepburn in Break of Hearts as well as Marius in the 1935 version of Les Miserables. However, his later career was to be very strong in television.
The film has a touch of magic about it, the Brigadoon element of films about the highlands. However, it is also socially concerned about a Luddite revolution in Scotland and the position of the heroine. It also is a romance – hampered by the little minister’s mother.
The film was directed by Richard Wallace. He was quite a prolific director until his death in 1950. Higher-profile films include two with Maureen O’Hara?, The Fallen Sparrow and Sinbad the Sailor as well as John Wayne in Tycoon. His last two films were with Shirley Temple, Adventure in Baltimore and A Kiss for Corliss.
1. The tone of the title, the entry into another world, the religious overtones, the atmosphere of J.M.Barrie’s Scotland?
2. The qualities of the film from the thirties? Black and white photography, reliance on sets, romantic attitudes, a star vehicle for Katharine Hepburn? The importance of these qualities?
3. The emphasis of the film's opening, the social setting, the town of Thrums, Scotland in the 1840s, social oppression, the strikes, the police called in? the people starving, the aristocracy? How were these themes utilized throughout the film and as a background for romance?
4. How attractive a character was Babble? Katharine Hepburn’s style? A wilful girl in herself? Her engagement? Her donning the dress and manner of a gypsy? Enjoying herself and her freedom, scandalising and stirring the people, her political interest and involvement, her non-religious attitudes, her influence on the people and on the minister?
5. The Importance of the people’s reactions to the gypsy? The difference for the audience knowing the truth? The contrast of Babble's behaviour, for example singing on the Sabbath, her free manner? Contrast with her life in the castle, and her aristocratic manner? Lord Rintoul and his sister? The preparations for the marriage?
6. How engaging a character was the minister himself? His seriousness and lack of humour, his zeal and dedication? His arrival, his relationship with his mother? His hopes for his ministry? Strengths of character and weaknesses? His involvement in the social conflict and his puzzle? The importance of his sermons and his comment on evil? His awareness of evil in himself? His puritanical approach to life and the film's criticism of it? His infatuation with Babble?
7. How well did the film show his infatuation growing? His contriving meetings with her? The effect on her, the effect on himself?
8. The importance of helping the old lady, with the money etc.? Sharing these things with Babble?
9. The conflict within Babble as regards her love? Her telling the truth to Lord Rintoul? Her listening to the description of the minister's love for her? Her description of the man that should love her and the minister*s accepting this definition of himself?
10. The importance of the riot? Babble's giving of the signal, the police, the wounding, the minister's ambiguous attitudes?
11. The people and their harsh judgement on the minister. Babble's appeal to forgive him?
12. How humane a film? How accurate the social commentary? A picture from another time and another world?
