First filmed in 1910, the venerable Helen Hunt Jackson novel Ramona was remade in 1936 in full Technicolor (20th Century-Fox's first such production).
Loretta Young plays Ramona, a half-Indian girl raised by a white family in Spanish California. She falls in love with the young man of the household (
Kent Taylor), but her joy turns to sorrow when the matriarch of the household expresses disgust at "race-mixing." Ramona turns instead to the family's Native American servant (
Don Ameche), a relationship that proves fatal for him. Ramona is rare for a 1930s film in that it depicts its racist characters as being totally in the wrong, rather than treating them compassionately so as not to offend the bigots in the audience. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide