Banjo on My Knee (film)

Banjo on My Knee is a 1936 American musical comedy-drama film directed by John Cromwell.^[1] The film was nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Sound Recording category for the work of Edmund H. Hansen.^[2]

Banjo on My Knee
Film poster
Directed by	John Cromwell
Written by	Harry Hamilton (novel)
Screenplay by	Nunnally Johnson
Based on	Banjo on My Knee (1936 novel)
Produced by	Darryl F. Zanuck Nunnally Johnson
Starring	Barbara Stanwyck Joel McCrea Walter Brennan
Cinematography	Ernest Palmer
Edited by	Hanson T. Fritch
Music by	Charles Maxwell
Distributed by	Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
Release date	December 11, 1936 (1936-12-11)
Running time	95 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Plot

Ernie Holley flees on his wedding night because he thinks that he has killed a wedding guest. His father Newt and his bride Pearl find him in New Orleans and persuade him to return home.

Cast

• Barbara Stanwyck as Pearl Elliott Holley
• Joel McCrea as Ernie Holley
• Walter Brennan as Newt Holley
• Buddy Ebsen as Buddy
• Helen Westley as Grandma
• Walter Catlett as Warfield Scott
• Tony Martin as Chick Bean (as Anthony Martin)
• Katherine DeMille as Leota Long (as Katherine De Mille)
• Victor Kilian as Mr. Slade
• Minna Gombell as Ruby
• Spencer Charters as Judge Tope
• Theresa Harris (uncredited) singer on dock

Reception

In a contemporary review for The New York Times, critic Frank S. Nugent wrote:

If we are to believe the Roxy's "Banjo on My Knee"—and there isn't an earthly reason why we should—the picturesque shanty boaters of the Mississippi are nothing more than song-and-dance men in the rough, homegrown crooners, players of one-man bands or torch singers of limited range and a tendency to grow moist-eyed whenever they hear that old American folk-song 'The St. Louis Blues.' It is an unsettling premise, disillusioning and unthinkable, and it impels us to scowl fiercely at the ballyhoo artists who have been telling us that the new Twentieth Century-Fox picture "combines the setting of 'Tobacco Road' with the mood of 'Steamboat 'Round the Bend.'" It ain't no such thing.^[3]