Mountain Justice

In Mountain Justice Hollywood displays its early contempt for southern hill folk that remains in one form or another unabated to this day. Portrayed en masse as ill bred, bad tempered, poor mannered ignoramuses one is surprised not to see them living in caves and grunting.

Country doc Barnard dreams of bringing a health center to his backwoods community but is met with skepticism by the coarse locals. Local girl and assistant Ruth Harkins shares his dream but is prevented by her father who views improvement and progress as disrespecting tradition. He responds brutally to his daughter and her "crazy notions" but she remains undaunted in her effort to help a community that in large part despises her.

Director Michael Curtiz offers up a share of tense moments that raises the tenor of storyline at times and there's a wonderful confident turn of a disheveled country lawyer played by Robert McWade but the treatment and interpretation of the Hillbilly community throughout the film remains rife with a bias that for the wrong reason would hold any interest today.