The Arkansas Traveler (1938) DVD-R

Starring Bob Burns, Fay Bainter, John Beal, Jean Parker, Lyle Talbot
Directed by Alfred Santell

Print: black/white
Runtime: 85 min.
Genre: drama
Print Quality: B

In its never-ending efforts to find a "rustic" screen personality to replace the late Will Rogers, Hollywood turned to popular radio humorist Bob Burns. In Paramount's The Arkansas Traveller, Burns plays the nameless title character, who wanders in out of the nowhere to settle down in a dusty Arkansas farming community. It turns out that he's arrived just in time: newspaper editor Martha Allen (Fay Bainter), widow of The Traveller's best friend, is in danger of losing her publication to crooked politico Matt Collins (Lyle Talbot). While helping Martha foil the villain, our hero also stage-manages the romance between Martha's daughter Judy (Jean Parker) and local boy Johnnie Daniels (John Beal). Irvin S. Cobb, no mean humorist himself, provides a bit of homespun philosophy as the town constable.