MovieChat Forums > Stars in My Crown (1950) Discussion > The Movie and the Book SPOILER WARNING

The Movie and the Book SPOILER WARNING

posted 14 years ago by wtl471629
1 reply | jump to latest

This thread is mainly to discuss the differences between the movie and the book and is intended for those who have seen the movie and the book so the SPOILER WARNING applies to others. Please write your thoughts on this also.

The Book seems to take place in about 1905. It was written by Joe David Brown in 1947 and some of the stories in it were published in 1946 in The Saturday Evening Post. The pastor in the book is the narrator's grandfather with most of the stories taking place when the boy (John) was about 9 years old. The main plots of both the movie and the book were 1. The conflict between the pastor and the doctor 2. Uncle Famous and the town Klan and 3. The epidemic. These take place over a period of three months in 1905 in that order. The epidemic in the book took place several months after the Uncle Famous incident. The main period covered is probably late spring to early fall in 1905. The book does conclude in 1917 when John is going to war and his uncle gives him advice to be careful which he obviously does since he gets to be the narrator. In the book an old lady remembers seeing Andrew Jackson so since he passed away in 1845 she was obviously very young and would be old in 1905. In the book John's father leaves town when his wife dies during child birth and goes to New York. He later stops by to see his son before joining the army in the Spanish American War in 1898. His father gets sick in training and ties which happened to some of the soldiers in Florida at that time.

The book is different in the time which seems to by about 1880. This is because a very old lady is said to remember seeing George Washington who passed away in 1799. So this would be possible since she would be in her mid 80s. The pastor comes to town right after the civil war as in the book. Joel McCrea was 45 when the movie was made so he is probably about that age in the movie. McCrea plays the pastor in the movie. He was about 25 when he comes to town but in the book the pastor was probably about 20 and served in the war in his teenage years which was common in the Civil War.
John in the movie is the nephew of the pastor and his wife. It isn't clear when he came to live with them but he must have been young. The only information is that his parents have passed away and that he is the son of his aunt's sister. But the pastor and his aunt raise him like their own. The book has the main three plots but the epidemic in the movie comes before the Uncle Famous incident which is at the end of the movie.

Both are very good. Please post your thoughts whether you agree or disagree with my analysis.

[–] cmashieldscapting 9 years ago

As I haven't read the book, I didn't read most of your analysis, but I do have the book and looked at it after seeing the movie to see if it was any clearer as to time and place on which the movie was a bit vague. They both seem to happen in the American South after the Civil War. The only thing I can say about the movie is it must take place after 1897 when the title song was written! Then allow time for it to appear in hymn books and the preacher to learn it...1905 would be about right, but the movie seems to take place at least ten years earlier. For instance, the man who was supposed to have been a Civil War drummer boy--he was only shown for a moment--but appeared to be under 40, so this would be no more than 30 years after the war even if he was a very young drummer boy! Also Uncle Famous had been a slave and mentioned being freed by someone--not by the war--which implies he was freed before the war was over. The movie doesn't go into how long earlier and how old he was at the time. The really telling thing was that the actors playing the preacher and his neighbor who were Civil War buddies were no more than 45 and 57 respectively, so presumably it was less than 35 years after the war! That being said, the screenplay was written by the book's author so great similarities between them are really no wonder.