| Director | Gordon Douglas |
|---|---|
| Genre | drama film |
| Runtime | 98 min |
| Country | United States |
| Box office | $3.5 million |
Pretty and shy young Georgia farmgirl Claudelle Inglish (Diane McBain), the daughter of a poor sharecropper Clyde Inglish (Arthur Kennedy) and his wife Jessie (Constance Ford), starts dating the poor neighbor, handsome farmboy Linn Varner (Chad Everett) during the spring of their senior year in high school. Claudelle and Linn instantly hit it off together, and soon they fall in love. Her mother objects to the relationship, fearing Claudelle will end up in the same rut she is, being married to a poor farmer, resulting in a stormy marriage. Claudelle is forced to endure her parents' many arguments stemming from Jessie's unhappiness having to be married to Clyde, a poor but hard-working farmer.
At the same time, rich, middle-aged, portly landowner S.T. Crawford (Claude Akins), who owns the farm where the Inglish family live, begins to secretly eye Claudelle. Despite her mother's protests, Linn wins her dad's approval by helping him on the farm. Shortly before graduation, Linn takes Claudelle to a neighborhood carnival, where he wins her a musical dancing doll. That same night, Linn asks Claudelle to marry him and she happily says yes. Linn gets drafted into the army, and he and Claudelle are spending their last night together before Linn's departure at the senior prom. The two leave the dance to go for a walk, where Claudelle tells Linn her fears about him being away in the army for two years and how she is afraid they will never be together again. Linn calms her fears by promising her he will marry her the day he comes home from the service. Claudelle, still fearing about Linn leaving her, has him make love to her that night in the woods.
Claudelle and Linn exchange letters through the summer, fall, and the following winter, with Claudelle looking forward to the day when he will return to marry her. During the winter, Claudelle makes payments on a trousseau for her wedding at Harley Peasley (Frank Overton) and his wife Ernestine's (Hope Summers) general store. She stays true to Linn, even politely rejecting the advances of Harley's son Dennis (Will Hutchins).
By spring, Linn's letters to Claudelle have slowed down causing her to worry, but she tells herself he is just really busy in the army with no time to write. She shares these feelings with her pastor Rev. Armstrong (Ford Rainey), leaving church one Sunday morning. A few days later, a despondent Claudelle waits for the mailman Mr. Gunstom (William Fawcett) on the porch of her house. Just then, Mr. Gunstom delivers a letter from Linn to an ecstatic Claudelle. Her joy is soon turned to sorrow as Linn tells Claudelle in his letter that, sometime back, he met a nice girl who's been very good to him and that he plans to marry her. Jessie hears Claudelle crying and tells her she's glad it happened and she should set her sights on S.T., as she feels having a rich husband brings true happiness. A crying Claudelle rejects this idea and locks herself in her room. When discussing Claudelle and Linn's breakup, Jessie tells Clyde how she wishes they hadn't married so she could be living better.
Claudelle wakes up the next morning after a bad storm and decides to get revenge on Linn the best way she knows how by becoming the town bad girl and teasing all the local boys. She starts wearing heavy makeup to entice all the boys. The trousseau that was meant for her wedding day, she now wears as an enticement to all the local men. Finding out she is available again, S.T. tries everything to win Claudelle over. He asks Clyde to persuade Claudelle to marry him; but Clyde, not liking S.T.'s intentions towards his daughter, refuses to do so, telling S.T. that no young girl would marry a man their age. S.T. then buys Claudelle a pair of red shoes she has wanted for a long time and proposes to her when he gives them to her, but she laughs him off telling him he is too old and fat and sends him on his way. Her mother tries to force her to marry S.T., but she flatly rejects him and starts having flings with Dennis (making love to him in his car down by the woods the same night she's supposed to go out with S.T.), Dave Adams (Jan Stine), Charles Henry (Robert Logan), and other neighbor boys, gaining herself a bad reputation with the men. At night, she cries in her sleep over memories of Linn and subconsciously realizes that being a bad girl is not going to help her cope with the pain. Nevertheless, she continues down her thorny path, accumulating many nice gifts, necklaces, perfume, etc., from all her male suitors. One night, at a local dance at a local dive, Claudelle meets a husky, rugged, aggressive drifter Rip Guyler (Robert Colbert), who instantly becomes infatuated with her, telling her he'll see her soon.
One night, S.T. shows up to take out Claudelle and sees what he thinks is her in the shadows coming to his car and it turns out to be Jessie, who, on a whim, is wearing Claudelle's white dress. S.T. is disappointed when Jessie tells him that Claudelle has stood him up again and gone out with Davy. S.T. tells Jessie how he thought she was Claudelle and how she reminds him of a young pretty girl wearing her white dress and asks her to go riding with him. Jessie, by this time, is completely indifferent to any feelings she had for her husband (who is sound asleep in the house), and she accepts S.T.'s offer. The two of them go riding down to the local make-out place by the lake where they are spotted by Claudelle and Davy, who laughs hysterically at them. Back home, a sleeping Clyde wakes up to find Jessie gone and all the gifts in Claudelle's room from her various suitors. When she returns with Davy, she shows off the necklace he gave her to Clyde, who yanks it off her neck and throws it to Davy, ordering him to leave and never come back. Clyde angrily confronts her about all the gifts on her bedroom dresser and is further angered when Claudelle tells him she and Davy saw S.T. and Jessie down by the lake.