White Banners | |
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Directed by | Edmund Goulding |
Produced by |
Henry Blanke Hal B. Wallis |
Written by |
Lenore J. Coffee Abem Finkel Cameron Rogers |
Starring |
Claude Rains Fay Bainter Jackie Cooper Bonita Granville Henry O'Neill Kay Johnson |
Music by | Max Steiner |
Cinematography | Charles Rosher |
Edited by | Thomas Richards |
Production
company |
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Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
Release date
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Running time
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92 min. |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
White Banners is a 1938 Warner Bros. drama film starring Claude Rains, Fay Bainter, Jackie Cooper, Bonita Granville, Henry O'Neill, and Kay Johnson.
Directed by Edmund Goulding and produced by Henry Blanke and Hal B. Wallis, the screenplay was adapted by Lenore J. Coffee, Abem Finkel and Cameron Rogers based on the 1936 novel of the same title by Lloyd C. Douglas.
The movie, Fay Bainter and others of the cast received very good reviews in the Los Angeles Times. Bainter was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her performance as Hannah Parmalee.
On a dreary, cold and snowy day in a small town in 1919 Indiana, a peddler named Hannah Parmalee (Bainter) appears at the door of a kind couple, Paul Ward (Rains) and his wife, Marcia (Johnson), selling apple peelers. Asked by Mrs. Ward to come inside and warm up, Hannah sees they are struggling financially and are in need of some domestic help. She offers her services and becomes their cook and housekeeper for room and board.
Mr. Ward, a science teacher by day, is an inventor by night attempting to create something that will provide sufficient money for Marcia, their teenaged daughter Sally (Granville) and their new baby, to have some luxuries in life. Hannah, who is extremely wise and helpful, comes up with some good ideas. She persuades Ward to sell old and useless furniture to raise money and make a place for his work in the basement.