Written by Hatcher Hughes Original language English First performance 4 January 1924 Place premiered Klaw Theatre | Date premiered January 4, 1924 Genre melodrama Playwright Hatcher Hughes Awards Pulitzer Prize for Drama | |
Setting The Hunt family home in the Blue Ridge Mountains Similar Why Marry?, The Shrike, They Knew What They Wanted, Miss Lulu Bett, Abe Lincoln in Illinois | ||
Hell-Bent Fer Heaven is a melodrama play by Hatcher Hughes.
Contents
Production
The play ran at the Klaw Theatre from January 4 to April 1924 and was produced by Marc Klaw. The cast featured George Abbott, Glenn Anders and Margaret Borough. The play was staged by Augustin Duncan.
It also helped launch the career of Clara Blandick, who later appeared as Auntie Em in The Wizard of Oz.
The play was included in Burns Mantle's The Best Plays of 1923 - 1924.
Pulitzer Prize
The play won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1924. The choice sparked controversy in literary circles and the media because the prize jury had actually selected George Kelly's The Show-Off, but was overruled by Columbia University, which was administering that year's Pulitzers. Hatcher Hughes was a Columbia professor.
Plot
Set in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Kentucky, late one afternoon to 9 o'clock that evening during the summer. Rufe Pryor is a religious fanatic who works for the Hunts. Sid Hunt returns to the family home from the war. He has a girlfriend, Jude Lowry, who Rufe also is interested in. Rufe inspires old clan rivalry between the Hunts and the Lowrys, in an attempt to remove Sid from the picture. When Rufe's plans are discovered, the two families reconcile. (The play was billed as "A High Spirited Tale of the Blue Ridge.")
Film
It was made into the motion picture of the same name in 1926.