Small Town Girl (1936 film)

Small Town Girl
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	William A. Wellman
Starring	Janet Gaynor Robert Taylor James Stewart
Edited by	Blanche Sewell
Distributed by	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date	April 10, 1936
Running time	106 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$760,000
Box office	$1,605,000

Small Town Girl (1936) is a romantic comedy film directed by William A. Wellman and starring Janet Gaynor, Robert Taylor, and James Stewart. The supporting cast features Binnie Barnes, Andy Devine, Lewis Stone and Edgar Kennedy.

Based on a novel by Ben Ames Williams, the film went through many changes before it reached the screen. The script is credited to John Lee Mahin, Edith Fitzgerald, and the husband-and-wife team of Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich.

Kay Brannan (Janet Gaynor) is so bored with her life that she can barely tolerate her family and prospective suitor Elmer (James Stewart). A traffic diversion brings hundreds of Yale-Harvard football players through town. One of them, Robert Dakin (Robert Taylor), a socially prominent surgeon from Boston, asks her for directions to a popular roadhouse and takes her there to join in the fun.

Later Bob becomes so drunk that he insists that they have a justice of the peace marry them. Kay is not quite so drunk, but she agrees, eager for any escape from the tedium. The next morning, Bob's parents (Lewis Stone, Nella Walker) like Kay, but are shocked that Bob, who was to marry socialite Priscilla Hyde (Binnie Barnes) in two weeks, would be so foolhardy. To avoid a scandal, Bob suggests to Kay that they pretend to be happily married for six months and then quietly get a divorce. Although hurt, she agrees, and after a staged "honeymoon" aboard the Dakin family yacht, they return to Boston. Gradually, they begin to fall in love, but they still keep each other at arm's length.

When Priscilla returns from a European holiday, she and Bob begin seeing each other secretly. One night, Kay gets a telephone call from Bob's clinic urgently summoning him to perform emergency brain surgery on Jimmy, a young patient. When Priscilla refuses to let her speak to Bob over the phone, Kay goes to Priscilla's apartment to fetch him. Bob starts the operation, but is not sure that he is sober enough to save Jimmy, so he has his colleague Dr. Underwood complete the delicate surgery.