1945 feature film
Based on Melchor Ferrer's success as a radio producer in New York City, Harry Cohn of Columbia Films signed
him to a contract in 1943 that brought him to Hollywood to work as a
dialogue coach on movies. It was Ferrer's initial entry into the film world
and in most respects he found the work laborious and unrewarding. But in
1945 Cohn asked him to direct a small budgeted remake of Gene Stratton Porter's sentimental tale "Girl of the Limberlost"
starring Dorinda Clifton as the impoverished Elnora Comstock and Ruth
Nelson as her bitter mother. It was Ferrer's directorial debut, and
was closely mentored by the greatest influence in his life at that time -
movie pioneer, D.W. Griffith, who was dissuaded from being on the set only
because of Ferrer's impassioned pleas on how nervous he'd be to have the
master present.
Like all B movies of the day, it was made on a low budget and a tight
schedule, and Ferrer ended up going over the allotted time plan. Years
later, Ferrer recalled that, "The studio hated me because I ran four days
over the 12-day schedule. But it made more money than any other B picture they'd had in five years."
Also in the cast of unknowns was a teenaged Vanessa Brown and Peggy Converse
in one of her first Hollywood movies.
Although Ferrer had come to Hollywood with high hopes of working in television,
this first Hollywood foray lasted just slightly more than a year. He was at
odds with Columbia throughout his contract and became quite discouraged with
the process of filming on a restricted schedule that valued financial thrift
against quality results. On the last day
of helming his first movie, he accepted José Ferrer's offer to star in
the theatrical production of "Strange Fruit" and left Hollywood to return to
the legitimate stage for the next two years.
