Cass Timberlane is a 1947 American romantic drama film directed by George Sidney and starring Spencer Tracy, Lana Turner and Zachary Scott. It was based on the 1945 novel Cass Timberlane: A Novel of Husbands and Wives by Sinclair Lewis, which was Lewis' nineteenth novel and one of his last.

Plot

Judge Cass Timberlane is a middle-aged, incorruptible, highly respected man who enjoys good books and playing the flute. He falls for Ginny, a much younger girl from the lower class in his small Minnesota town. At first, the marriage is happy, but Ginny becomes bored with the small town and with the judge's friends. She leaves him for an affair with a lawyer, Timberlane's boyhood friend. Eventually, disillusioned with her lover, Ginny returns to her husband and becomes his loyal wife. The novel is Lewis's examination of marriage, love, romance, heartache and trust.

Cast

Production

David Ogden Stewart, who worked on the script, recalled: "Spencer Tracy was a terribly professional actor who worked on the script and knew it by heart, and Lana’d come onto the set not having the foggiest idea what the thing was about, not knowing the lines or anything. Spencer was very angry during the first couple of weeks. Then it got better, and at the end he said: “That is a good actress.” She got his respect eventually, and I think Cass was quite a good picture."

Cultural references

Wolcott Gibbs spoofed the novel in The New Yorker as "Shad Ampersand". The song "Cleo the Cat" by the band Benton Harbor Lunchbox was inspired by the novel Cass Timberlane: A Novel of Husbands and Wives.

Reception

Though it received tepid critical reviews, the film was a box office hit, earning $3,983,000 in the U.S. and Canada and $1,203,000 elsewhere, but because of its high production cost, it returned a profit of only $746,000.

Home media

Cass Timberlane was released to DVD by Warner Home Video on July 6, 2010, via Warner Archives as a DVD-on-demand disc available through Amazon.

In other media

Radio

Cass Timberlane was presented on Theatre Guild on the Air February 15, 1953. The one-hour adaptation starred Fredric March and Nina Foch.