Watch This: King Vidor’s Great Melodrama “Ruby Gentry”

“The story of a flame named Ruby who took a whole town apart…step by step, sin by sin!” – original tagline.

1952’s Ruby Gentry is an outstanding Southern melodrama from director King Vidor (Stella Dallas) that chronicled the exploits of Ruby Corey (Jennifer Jones), a gorgeous-but-dirt-pool gal who had it bad for judge’s son Boake Tackman (Charlton Heston). Crushed when he threw her over to marry within his own social stratum, her response was to spitefully accept the impulsive proposal of rich, newly widowed landowner Jim Gentry (Karl Malden)…and her campaign of vengeance against her lover and the community had only just begun.

When it was released by Twentieth Century Fox in December of 1952, Ruby Gentry was a hit, largely due to how audiences connected with the story and its players. Here’s one of the film’s most intense scenes:

Ruby Gentry is now available on DVD and Blu-ray via KL Studio Classics.