The Enchanted Valley

Timmy, a young disabled boy unable to walk, lives with his grandfather on a remote farm in an isolated valley hidden away from mankind. Their peaceful coexistence with nature is shattered when the farm is invaded by small-time gangster Johnny Nelson and his girlfriend Midge. Having just robbed an armored car, they are on the run not only from the police, but also their fellow crooks. Bearing no ill will to anyone, Timmy and his grandfather welcome them with open arms, and before long, Johnny and Midge see the error of their criminal ways. When the old man succumbs to a heart attack, he makes Johnny swear to take care of Timmy. Knowing that the reward money for his capture could pay for an operation to help the boy walk again, the reformed crook decides to turn himself in…but his criminal cohorts, recently arrived on the farm, want their stolen loot back -- even if it's over Johnny's dead body…

The Enchanted Valley is a moving drama filmed by low-budget studio PRC on location at Big Bear and Cedar Lake in the San Bernardino Mountains. It stars Alan Curtis, a regular of "B" movies best known for his memorable part in High Sierra (1941) with Ida Lupino and Humphrey Bogart. Tragically, he died five years after this film's release following a routine kidney operation at the age of 43. Anne Gwynne appeared in several Universal horror films, including The Black Cat (1941), The Strange Case of Dr. Rx (1942) and House Of Frankenstein (1944), and made a picture-perfect Tess Trueheart in Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome (1947). Child actor Donn Gift played a similar role as a handicapped youngster two years earlier in the classic The Yearling (1946). Charley Grapewin was a vaudeville performer who began his career in film at the turn of the century, starring in the F.S. Armitage short Above the Limit (1900). However, he is best known for his grandfatherly roles decades later, playing both Uncle Henry in The Wizard of Oz (1939) and Grandpa Joad in The Grapes of Wrath (1940).