Ruby Gentry is a 1952 film directed by King Vidor, and starring Jennifer Jones, Charlton Heston, and Karl Malden.

[3] Ruby Corey, a poor backwoods girl living in the small North Carolina town of Braddock, is still in love with Boake Tackman.

During high school, Ruby had rebuffed his aggressive advances, and was taken in for a couple of years by a kind wealthy businessman and his wife, who protected her and taught her the skills a lady would need.

Ruby uses Jim's money to begin a campaign against everyone who slighted her, calling in debts to close down people's businesses as well as the newspaper that slandered her.

Just then, her estranged brother Jewel Corey begins to shoot at the couple while quoting Bible verses about the wickedness of women and sinners who must be struck down.

It has subsequently become a jazz and pop standard, both as an instrumental and with lyrics by Mitchell Parish, recorded by such artists as Ray Charles and Neil Diamond, Les Welch & His Orchestra, with vocals by Richard Gray (Festival-Manhattan FM75, a shellac 78 in Australia), and Vic Damone, on his 1962 Capitol album The Lively Ones (Capitol T1748).