Ruby (1952 song)
| Ruby Gentry | |
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| Directed by | King Vidor |
| Produced by |
Joseph Bernhard King Vidor |
| Written by |
Arthur Fitz-Richard Silvia Richards |
| Starring |
Jennifer Jones Charlton Heston Karl Malden |
| Narrated by | Barney Phillips |
| Music by | Heinz Roemheld |
| Cinematography | Russell Harlan |
| Edited by | Terrell O. Morse |
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Production
company |
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| Distributed by | Twentieth Century-Fox |
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Release date
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Running time
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82 min. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $525,000 (estimated) |
| Box office | $1.75 million (US) |
Ruby Gentry is a 1952 film directed by King Vidor and starring Jennifer Jones, Charlton Heston and Karl Malden.
The movie and the title character were the inspiration for Roberta Lee Streeter to take the performing name Bobbie Gentry.
Ruby Corey (Jennifer Jones), a poor backwoods girl living in the small North Carolina town of Braddock, is still in love with Boake Tackman (Charlton Heston). During high school, Ruby had rebuffed his aggressive advances, and was taken in for a couple of years by a kind wealthy businessman and his wife, who protected her and taught her the skills a lady would need. She moved back home when her father needed her help. Boake's family used to be wealthy, but after generations of profligacy all he has left is the land he has had drained and farmed. He starts a relationship with her but plans to marry a local woman with a rich family. When she hears the news, Ruby marries her former benefactor, Mr. Jim Gentry (Karl Malden), whose invalid wife had recently died, despite not loving him.
Her background keeps her from being accepted by most of Jim's peers, most of whom decline to attend their after-wedding party. While at another party, Jim gets into a fistfight with Boake after witnessing him dancing with Ruby. Jim calls Ruby a tramp who looks like a lady but doesn't behave like one. She leaves in tears, and later that night, he apologizes. The next day Jim and Ruby go sailing, where he tells her he "doesn't mind being second best" and she admits she really does love him. A loose rope results in Jim being knocked overboard by the boom, leaving Ruby widowed and distraught.
The local paper writes that she is a gold-digger who murdered Jim for his fortune and mentions the fistfight between Jim and Boake. Jim's friends renounce her and she receives accusatory phone calls and harassment from the townspeople. Ruby uses Jim's money to begin a campaign against everyone who slighted her, calling in debts to close down people's businesses as well as the newspaper that slandered her. Her brother comes to beg her for leniency, but she throws him out, warning she is just getting started. When Boake visits, she gives him the promissary-note he had signed and which was acquired by Gentry, and offers to run off with him but he rejects her, saying that for all her money she can't buy her way out of the swamp and she can't buy him.
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