Hilda Crane

Plot

In the five years since she left Winona, her hometown, Hilda Crane has been divorced twice and acquired quite a dubious reputation. She returns from New York to a scolding mother, who hopes Hilda will have the good sense to marry successful builder Russell Burns and finally settle down.

A former professor and lover, Jacques DeLisle, is still holding a grudge because Hilda left him for an athlete. Although she doesn't love Russell, she resists and resents Jacques' aggressive romantic advances. She accepts a proposal of marriage from Russell, who intends to build her a new house.

Warned by a friend about Russell's possessive mother, including her way of feigning a heart condition, Hilda declines a $50,000 bribe from Mrs. Burns to leave town. She leaves the old woman slumped in a chair and proceeds to the church for the wedding. Mrs. Burns was not pretending this time, however, and has died.

Months later, still living in her mother-in-law's house, Hilda has begun to drink while Russell becomes indifferent to her and morose. A day comes when Hilda's mother castigates her again and she can take no more. Hilda swallows a bottle of sleeping pills, intent on committing suicide. But she survives, and is cheered by Russell's promise to restore their love and start building their new house.

Background

The original play by Samson Raphaelson, Hilda Crane, on which the film is based had its first performance on Broadway on November 1, 1950 at the Coronet Theatre, in a production directed by Hume Cronyn and designed by Howard Bay. Jessica Tandy starred as Hilda Crane. Also in the cast were John Alexander, Beulah Bondi, Frank Sundstrom, Evelyn Varden, and Eileen Heckart. Of the stage cast, only Evelyn Varden appears in the film.

Philip Dunne was the screenwriter on three previous 20th Century Fox epic films which star Jean Simmons, The Robe (1953), Demetrius and the Gladiators (1954) and The Egyptian (1954).

Cast