The Parson of Panamint

1941
Approved
1h 24m

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

Ellen Drew, Charles Ruggles, and Phillip Terry in The Parson of Panamint (1941)

The mayor of wild and woolly mining town Panamint, is in San Francisco to fetch a preacher for the new church, and happens upon young Philip Pharo, as handy with his fists as with a sermon. ... Read allThe mayor of wild and woolly mining town Panamint, is in San Francisco to fetch a preacher for the new church, and happens upon young Philip Pharo, as handy with his fists as with a sermon. Upon his arrival, it appears to Philip that some of the town's bad folks are better than t... Read allThe mayor of wild and woolly mining town Panamint, is in San Francisco to fetch a preacher for the new church, and happens upon young Philip Pharo, as handy with his fists as with a sermon. Upon his arrival, it appears to Philip that some of the town's bad folks are better than the superior element. When he sets out to improve the lives of the miners and bring flagran... Read all

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.1/10

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Photos

Storyline

Edit

Did you know

Edit

Trivia
One of over 700 Paramount Productions, filmed between 1929 and 1949, which were sold to MCA/Universal in 1958 for television distribution, and have been owned and controlled by Universal ever since; its earliest documented telecast took place in Boston Thursday 23 October 1958 on WBZ (Channel 4); it first aired in Milwaukee Friday 1 May 1959 on WITI (Channel 6).

Quotes
Mrs. Tweedy: [to Rev. Pharo] It was a fine sermon, Parson. I hope a few of the people in Panamint will take it to heart.

Connections
Remake of The Parson of Panamint (1916)

Soundtracks
Merry-Go-Round
(uncredited)
Written by Ann Ronell
Performed by Ellen Drew (dubbed by Martha Mears)

User reviews2

Review

Featured review

7/10

A surprisingly good little western...

... about a gold boomtown that goes bust. The story has grizzled old Charles Ruggles at a campfire and telling the story of the ghost town in the distance, the one where he was once mayor.

The good townsfolk run the local gold mine but lie about the safety issues. The bad townsfolk hang out in a saloon. When Ruggles brings a young parson (Phillip Terry) to town, he causes the rift to widen by taking in a local drunk and by befriending the saloon singer (Ellen Drew). The good folk can't stand this sort of Christian charity and hate seeing the downtrodden succeed at anything.

After the parson is basically framed for murder in an accidental killing and is almost lynched, Ruggles delivers a sermon that exposes the hypocrites and sends them packing. I'm sure there are all kinds of biblical parallels but that's not a subject I know much about. It's a neat little film with solid performances by all. Porter Hall leads the good folks. Joseph Schildkraut pays the saloon owner. This is one of Ruggles' best (unmannered) performances, and Terry is quite good as the parson. Panamint is a real ghost town near Death Valley.