The Incredible Journey Of Dr. Meg Laurel (1979)

Set in 1932, a doctor (Lindsay Wagner) leaves her doctor husband (John Reilly) and their Boston home to go to the Appalachian backwoods to help the people living there. But when she arrives, she soon discovers that she's distrusted and not wanted there as the residents are quite happy with the local medicine woman (Jane Wyman) who uses natural remedies. Directed by Guy Green (A PATCH OF BLUE), the film surprises you when it doesn't go where you think it's going. It's easy to be irritated with the ignorant hillbilly folk who have yet to enter the 20th century but the city doctor is rather arrogant and too confident and dismissive of the folk remedies they have used for decades. Wagner is good but both the actress and her character have a hard time standing up to Wyman's stalwart mountain medicine "granny". At almost 2 1/2 hours, it goes on a bit long but there's very little filler. With James Woods, Dorothy McGuire, Gary Lockwood (almost unrecognizable), Andrew Duggan and Brock Peters.