Romance of Rosy Ridge, The

Vacationing at a ski resort, retired screen diva Norma Shearer noticed a picture of pretty Jeanette Morrison. In no time Jeanette had a screen test, a new name -- Janet Leigh -- and the lead opposite heartthrob Van Johnson in The Romance of Rosy Ridge. Coltish, wide-eyed and talented, Leigh was the ideal choice to play a coltish, wide-eyed beauty in this poignant love story set in the post-Civil War Ozarks, where folks are still divided blue versus gray. When an ex-soldier (Johnson) comes to the troubled town wearing military britches so faded no one can tell the original color, he gets the locals all riled up -- especially when he courts the daughter (Leigh) of an ex-Johnny Reb (Thomas Mitchell) who reckons the newcomer may be a damned Yankee!

• drama