Katharine Hepburn plays a backwoods faith healer accused of witchcraft—Pre-Code chaos at its finest.
Dirt-poor mountain girl Trigger Hicks is a loner. Her faith-healing is mistaken for witchcraft by the community. She falls for an engineer building a dam, who protects her.
Acting
Hepburn's bizarre accent—part hillbilly, part theater kid.
Production
Gritty Appalachian sets that reek of authenticity.
Writing
Pre-Code dialogue that sneaks past the censors.
Director
John Cromwell
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Pre-Code Hollywood (1930-1934) allowed frank sexuality, moral ambiguity, and working-class heroines before the Hays Code enforcement gutted American cinema. Spitfire barely squeaked through.
Hepburn hated this film and allegedly tried to buy the negative to destroy it. RKO refused. She was nominated for an Oscar the same year—for a different movie, thank god.
US
