tate Senator Blake Washburn (Jeffrey Lynn) has returned home from Capitol City after losing the last election. The people clearly weren’t happy with his work, though politics can be a fickle arena. And money plays a significant role, along with sneaky campaign tactics, leaving Blake feeling as if his chances were untowardly manipulated by the wealthy John MacFarland (Donald Crisp), whose son wound up winning the seat. “There’s another one in two years.”

While Blake has an opportunity to catch up with his sweetheart and fiancee of seven years, schoolteacher Janice Hunt (Marjorie Reynolds), it’s difficult for him to see all of his other old friends and acquaintances, whose comments he often interprets as gloating over his defeat. And because he believed he was the best representative for the people, it’s an even harsher loss; he doesn’t understand why they’d vote against their best interests (an endlessly prescient, topical notion). But he was controversial, especially when he got into a fist fight on the Senate floor; the good he did for his constituents wasn’t always received as such, especially when many of them cast their votes based on Blake’s war-hero aura rather than his experience.

“People really believe what they read.” Commenting on the ways that citizens succumb to misinformation, disinformation, and propaganda (in the ‘50s and onward – perhaps to a greater degree with the powers and avenues of news), “Home Town Story” focuses on Blake’s crusade to use his returning position as the editor of the local newspaper, Fairfax Morning Herald (conveniently owned by his uncle), for something important. What he really wants to expose is pollution of the river water, presumably caused by MacFarland’s factory improperly disposing of acids and refuse, but he can’t seem to get a scoop. Instead, he lands upon the record earnings of Metro Manufacturing, inspiring him to begin investigations into other corporations whose business profits are extraordinarily high, despite the lowly workers struggling to make ends meet.

This new scrutiny is also damningly relevant decades later; it’s forever disheartening that the major issues of more than 70 years ago are still unsolved – if not utterly exacerbated by a carefully orchestrated, concerted effort to get people to ignore them. Indeed, when MacFarland turns up to defend his company, he spins a tale of profit for the customers, which may contain a sliver of truth, until audiences realize (if they ever do) that there’s a limit to the amount of profits a business can make before it’s all merely funneled to the top executives and owners and not reinvested into equipment and workers. The questionable pro-business slant is evident, as Blake’s perspective is made out to be unnecessarily stringent rather than truthful; reporter Slim Haskins (Alan Hale Jr.) even threatens to quit after hearing MacFarland’s calm, quiet, yet terribly insincere speech about how his extreme profits help the end users of his products as much as his own pocketbook – a tactic of trickle-down monetary thinking that is also timeless (and wrong).

Side plots attempt to incriminate Blake, such as when he admits to using the paper to regain popularity (“What’s wrong with trying to get votes?”), and when he requires seeing a machine in action (after a mine cave-in – which directly effects him, and isn’t merely a newsworthy story of human interest) to believe in the value and quality of high-end equipment. It’s a curious amount of disingenuousness, which flies in the face of what Blake initially, righteously sought to expose. Nevertheless, this well-acted, no-nonsense drama (with a haunting Louis Forbes musical score) strikes an admirable tone, even if its overt messaging is a fantasy, an idealistic take on capitalism that is less and less true every year and completely at-odds with Washburn’s agenda to aid the everyman. Of course, it’s likely only to be remembered for the newspaper’s conspicuously attractive secretary, Iris Martin (Marilyn Monroe), whose bit part role is to be flirted with and to receive frequent ogles from Slim.

– Mike Massie